SPALDING 


TEACHING   AND    INFLUENCE 
OF    ST.    /lUGUSTINE 


16  .S",  1  i. 


3From  \\\i  Sltbrar^  nf 

Spqupati|ph  by  l|tm  to 
tljp  ICtbrairy  of 


Spalding,  James  Field,  1839 

1921. 
The  teaching  and  influence 
Saint  Aumis 


THE 


TEACHING    AND    INFLUENCE 

OF 

SAINT   AUGUSTINE 

AN  ESSAY 

WITH  PARTICULAR  REFERENCE  TO  RECENT  MISAPPREHENSIONS 


JAMES  FIELD   SPALDING 

RECTOR    OF    CHRIST    CHURCH,    CAMBRIDGE,   MASS. 


NEW  YORK 

JAMES    POTT    AND    COMPANY 

1886 


Copyright,  1886, 
By  JAMES    FIELD   SPALDING. 


ELECTROTYPED  AND  PRINTED 

BY   RAND,   AVERY,   AND  COMPANY, 

BOSTON,   MASS. 


Below  are  given  the  principal  works  and  editions  referred 
to  in  the  following  pages :  — 

Sancti  Aurelii  Augustini  Hipponensis  Episcopi  Opera  omnia. 
Opera  et  studiis  monachorum  ordinis  Sancti  Benedicti.     (Parisiis, 

1836.) 

Library  of  the  Fathers.     New   issue.     (Oxford   and   London, 

1879-) 

The  Works  of  Aurelitis  Augustifte,  Bishop  of  Hippo.     A  new 

.  translation.     (Edinburgh,  1876.) 

Select  Anti-Pelagian  Treatises  of  St.  Augustine,  with  an  Intro- 
duction by  William  Bright,  D.D.     (Oxford,  1880.) 

A  Treatise  on  the  Augustinian  Doctrine  of  Predestination.  By 
J.  B.  Mozley,  D.D.     Third  edition.     (London,  1883.) 

Histoire  de  Saint  Augustin.     Par  M.  Poujoulat.     (Paris,  1846.) 
Der    heilige    Augustinus,  dargestellt   von     Carl    Bindemann. 
(Greifswald,  1869.) 

Evenings  with  the  Skeptics.  By  John  Owen,  Rector  of  East 
Anstey,  Devon.    (London,  1881.) 

The  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought.  By  Alexander  V.  G. 
Allen,  Professor  in  the  Episcopal  Theological  School  in  Cambridge, 
Mass.    (Boston,  1884.) 


THE    TEACHING   AND    INFLUENCE    OF 
SAINT   AUGUSTINE 


One  result  of  the  Catholic  revival  which  has  visited 
the  Church  of  England,  and  indeed  the  entire  Anglican 
Communion,  during  the  present  century,  has  been  to 
awaken  and  renew  interest  in  the  study  of  the  Fathers. 
The  appeal  so  continually  made  to  antiquity  has  been 
taken  up  and  carried  on  from  one  point  to  another  in 
our  modern  life ;  and  it  can  be  no  matter  of  surprise, 
but  should  be  cause  for  deep  gratitude,  that  it  has  met 
so  full  and  hearty  a  response.  Sincerity  of  spirit,  ear- 
nestness of  purpose,  and  patience  in  actual  research 
have  led  honest  inquirers  to  satisfactory  results.  The 
wisdom,  learning,  intellectual  grasp,  spiritual  percep- 
tion, or  clear  insight  into  Holy  Scripture  ;  the  profound 
reasoning,  soaring  imagination,  or  acute  speculation  of 
these  ancient  writers  has  been  marked  and  admired. 
Although,  from  the  very  necessities  of  the  case,  they 
have  been  judged  far  inferior  in  some  ways  to  modern 
writers,  in  others  they  have  been  found  to  be  as  far 
superior  to  them.  In  thought  and  expression  and 
philosophical  theory  it  has  been  seen  again  and  again 

5 


6  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

that  they  have  anticipated  the  moderns,  and  readers 
have  been  surprised  to  find  that  what  they  supposed 
was  original  to  the  nineteenth  century  was  in  the  writ- 
ings of  the  first  or  second.  More  than  all  else,  the 
practical  consensus  of  antiquity  upon  cardinal  matters 
of  doctrine,  or  discipline,  or  worship,  has  yielded  testi- 
mony which  has  been  invaluable ;  and  the  Church's 
teachings,  seen  in  this  concentrated  light  of  ancient 
interpretation,  have  come  to  be  more  definitely  dis- 
cerned, and  her  holy  ways  more  devoutly  loved.  If  a 
wholly  different  animus  has  appeared  to  actuate  any 
in  their  investigations,  as  may  be  noticed  in  certain 
recent  writings  about  the  Fathers,  even  this  has  not 
been  without  advantage.  The  extreme  of  inaccuracy 
of  statement  or  fancifulness  of  conjecture,  the  farthest 
reach  of  free-thinking  in  aversion  to  Catholic  dogma  or 
sacramental  grace  or  the  authority  of  the  Church, — 
all  this  has  been  but  a  strong  incentive  to  urge  many 
who  never  before  inquired  to  look  into  the  Fathers 
for  themselves,  and  see  whether  these  things  were  so. 
Not  seldom  the  arguments  of  detractors  have  over- 
shot themselves  and  proved  too  much,  and  thinking 
men  have  been  content  to  say  that  it  was  very  strange 
that  this  or  that  great  Doctor  of  the  Church  should 
have  been  held  in  universal  esteem  for  so  many  cen- 
turies, for  the  grandness  and  comprehensiveness  of  his 
teaching,  and  that  his  real  place  of  littleness  and  bigotry 
should  be  the  discovery  of  to-day ! 

Moreover,  the    differences   and    the   agreements  be- 
tween the  earlier  and  the  later  Fathers,  or  between  the 


MOTIVES  FOR  STUDYING  HIS   WRITINGS         7 

Greek  and  the  Latin  Fathers,  have  been  put  under 
examination.  While  there  have  been  found  natural 
variations,  such  as  one  would  expect,  from  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  type  of 
mind,  habits  of  thought,  surroundings,  or  climatic  in- 
fluence ;  or  as  between  the  first  century  and  the  fourth 
or  fifth,  in  the  advancement  of  civilization,  the  growth 
of  the  Church,  or  the  power  of  the  State,  a  thorough 
investigation,  as  we  believe,  has  not  revealed  those 
radical  differences  which  some  have  claimed  between 
the  orthodox  East  and  the  orthodox  West  ;  —  as  if 
the  Greek  and  the  Latin  theologies  had  nothing  in 
common  upon  the  broad,  underlying  truths,  e.g.  of  the 
presence  of  God  in  the  world  or  in  the  Church,  the 
Incarnation  of  our  Lord,  Divine  grace,  human  sin  and 
human  freedom. 

Confessedly  pre-eminent  among  the  Latin  Fathers, 
—  many  would  say  among  all  the  Fathers,  —  is  S.  Au- 
gustine. His  natural  gifts  and  acquired  powers  were 
so  remarkable,  the  extent  and  variety  of  his  writings  so 
great ;  his  impress  upon  his  own  age  was  so  weighty, 
his  authority  throughout  the  Western  Church  for  the 
next  thousand  years  so  unshaken  ;  and  the  range  of  his 
subsequent  influence  has  been  so  wide  and  deep,  that 
history  has  brought  down  to  our  day  no  name  among 
Illustrious  Christian  thinkers  and  teachers  so  familiar. 

In  this  very  fact,  with  what  it  implies,  lies  the  secret 
of  our  desire  to  say  something  anew  upon  his  life  and 
work.  The  familiarity  with  the  name  of  S.  Augustine 
is,  of  course,  on  the  part  of  very  many,  even  intelligent 


8  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

people,  in  this  busy  age,  only  that, — a  familiarity  with 
the  name  ;  they  live,  all  unconsciously,  under  the  power 
of  his  master-spirit.  Others,  again,  both  in  the  Church 
and  in  the  dissenting  bodies  about  us,  have  a  more  or 
less  mistaken  conception  of  this  great  saint  and  Father  : 
—  they  almost  take  away  his  individuality,  and  identify 
him  in  their  minds  with  Luther,  or  Calvin,  or  Jansen  ; 
while  they  think  of  his  teaching  as  chiefly  some  dread- 
ful notions  of  predestination  and  original  sin  and  eter- 
nal punishment.  Both  these  classes  of  people  need  to 
gain  a  knowledge  of  S.  Augustine,  Others  still,  who 
years  ago  may  have  been  careful  students  of  his  writ- 
ings, may  find  benefit  in  observing,  from  the  new  per- 
spective, of  present  individual  experience  or  of  the  ideas 
of  our  time,  the  relative  proportions  of  his  opinions  and 
doctrines ;  having  learned,  perhaps,  with  fuller  knowl- 
edge and  riper  wisdom,  to  put  a  fairer  estimate  upon 
his  life  and  work ;  to  enter,  with  more  sensitive  appre- 
ciation, into  his  spirit  ;  more  accurately  to  understand 
his  teaching ;  and  thus,  more  truly  than  ever  before, 
to  comprehend  his  greatness. 

One  other  object  we  have  in  view;  —  to  say  a  few 
words  upon  tJie  influence  of  S.  Augustine.  We  do  not 
regard  that  influence  in  the  distant  past  and  up  to 
the  present  hour  either  as  unmixed  evil,  or  as  more 
evil  than  good.  Accordingly,  we  should  not  think 
with  satisfaction  of  what  has  been  called  "the  linger- 
ing hold  of  Augustine  upon  the  modern  mind."  Nor 
do  we  see  any  reason  to  suppose  that  his  influence  is 
really  waning.     We  believe  that  the  centuries  to  come 


HIS  INFLUENCE  9 

will  fully  uphold  the  just  verdict  of  the  present  and 
the  past, not  of  blind  admiration,  or  servile  follow- 
ing, or  unquestioning  assent ;  but  of  glad  recognition  of 
unwonted  powers  of  mind  and  heart  loyally  and  on  the 
whole  wisely  exercised,  in  defence  of  great  doctrines 
of  Holy  Scripture,  and  in  maintenance  of  the  ministry 
and  sacraments  of  the  Church.  That  he  committed  no 
error  of  doctrine,  we  do  not  say  ;  he  never  claimed  in- 
fallibility for  himself  ;  in  his  humility  he  was  farthest 
from  any  such  pretence ;  he  is  not  our  master,  nor  has 
the  Church  ever  accepted  all  his  system  of  doctrine ; 
as  has  been  justly  observed,  "  she  is  free  from  all  bond- 
age to  the  letter  of  his  writings ;  she  is  not  his,  but  he 
is  hers." 

We  do  not  propose  to  speak  with  any  fulness  of  S. 
Augustine's  life ;  yet,  even  at  the  risk  of  repeating 
what  may  be  known,  we  shall  trace  its  main  events  ;  for 
the  history  of  his  life  is  wonderfully  bound  up  with  the 
history  of  his  opinions.  He  was  born  at  Thagaste,  in 
Numidia,  November  13,  A.D.  354.  His  father,  Patricius, 
was  then  a  heathen.'  His  mother,  Monica,  was  a  de- 
vout Christian.  His  father's  opposition  may  have  pre- 
vented his  being  baptized  in  infancy.  His  mother  did 
all  she  could  ;  and  made  him  a  catechumen  by  the  cere- 
monies then  in  use  in  the  Church.^     When  he  was  quite 

'  He  became  a  Christian  late  in  life,  won  by  the  example  and  persua- 
sion of  the  holy  Monica. 

^  In  Wall's  Hist,  of  Inf.  Baptisin,  Vol.  I.  p.  403,  etc.,  a  fair  explana- 
tion is  given  why  Augustine  was  not  baptized  in  infancy,  in  answer  to 
the  supposition  that  infant  baptism  was  not  then  practised. 


lO  SAINT  A  UGUSriNE 

a  young  child,  he  was  near  being  baptized,  at  his  own 
request,  in  serious  illness ;  but  on  his  recovery  the 
sacrament  was  again  postponed,  in  part,  now,  from  his 
mother's  wish,  who  foresaw  the  temptations  of  youth, 
and  dreaded  the  greater  guilt  of  sin  after  baptism. 
{Confess.  1.  i.  c.  II.)  In  spite  of  her  fond  instructions, 
his  boyhood  soon  showed  an  extraordinary  degree  of 
waywardness.  He  hated  his  studies,  and  had  to  be 
whipped  to  his  tasks.  Latin  he  naturally  acquired  with 
ease,  and  more  from  listening  than  from  lessons  {Conf. 
i.  14) ;  and  he  has  left  on  record  his  exceeding  love  for 
that  language  ;  but  all  else  was  "a  burden  and  a  punish- 
ment," and  emphatically  the  Greek  tongue,  for  which 
he  seems  to  have  continued  to  cherish  a  dislike,  and  in 
which  he  never  gained  high  proficiency ;  although  his 
ignorance  was  not  such  as  to  justify  the  contemptuous 
statements  which  have  been  made  upon  the  subject.' 
At  the  age  of  sixteen  we  find  him,  after  having  been 
for  a  time  at  school  in  Madaura,  a  neighboring  city, 
spending  a  year  at  home,  while  his  parents  saved  money 
to  send  him  to  Carthage  to  complete  his  studies.  That 
year  of  "imposed  idleness"  must  have  been  one  of 
great  peril  to  him,  just  at  that  age,  and  with  such  a 
nature  and  habits  as  he  had.  His  Confessions  tell  of 
the   development    of   vice  which  then  went  on  within 

'  His  own  admissions  of  slight  knowledge,  —  "  propc  nihil  "  he  c.ills  it 
in  one  place,  should  be  taken  in  connection  with  passages  in  his  writings 
which  prove  the  extent  of  that  knowledge.  A  great  number  of  such  have 
been  collected  by  Abp.  Trench  in  his  S.  Augtistiue  as  an  Interpreter  of 
Scripttire,  pp.  20-22.  For  his  own  statements,  cf.  Conf,  i.  13,-14;  Con.  lit. 
Petil.  ii.  3S;  De  Triii.  iii.  i  ;  De  Doetr.  Christ,  ii.  II-15. 


EARLY  AND  STUDENT-LIFE  II 

him.  His  father  seems  not  to  have  been  much  con- 
cerned, and  his  mother's  warnings  and  entreaties  were 
only  despised  {Coi/f.  ii.  3),  though  both  were  but  "  too 
anxious "  that  he  should  get  learning,  the  one  with 
motive  of  worldly  advancement,  the  other  to  bring  him 
nearer  God.  Soon  after  this  his  father  died  ;  and  the 
subsequent  expense  of  his  education  was  partly  met 
by  a  wealthy  fellow -townsman.  His  student-life  of 
three  years  in  Carthage  (from  seventeen  to  nineteen) 
was  one  of  gay,  wild,  licentious  dissipation,  and  yet  of 
high  attainment  in  his  studies.  He  shone  especially  in 
rhetoric,  (a  department  which  included  far  more  then 
than  now,)  and  found  himself  at  the  head  of  the  school. 
{Conf.  iii.  3.)  The  reading  of  Cicero's  Hortensius  first 
awakened  in  him  the  love  of  philosophy.  Urged  by 
the  spirit  of  that  book,  and  doubtless  recalling  his  early 
Christian  instructions,  he  began  to  look  into  the  Holy 
Scriptures ;  but  soon  turned  away,  not  thinking  them 
worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  dignity  of  Cicero. 
{Conf.  iii.  5.)  His  attention  was  next  taken  by  Mani- 
chaeism,  whose  claim  of  divine  inspiration  and  promises 
of  knowledge  and  truth  {Conf.  iii.  6  ;  vi.  5)  proved  a 
ready  snare ;  and,  once  captured,  he  was  held  for  nine 
years.  He  embraced  this  heresy  just  at  the  close  of 
his  student-life.  Returning  to  his  native  town,  to  teach 
rhetoric,  his  zeal  was  at  once  shown  for  the  success  of 
his  new  opinions  ;  and  he  was  increasingly  elated  with 
pride  that  by  his  dialectic  skill  he  could  overcome  any 
opponents.  Among  others,  he  had  won  over  to  Mani- 
chaeism  a  friend  whom  he  had  known  from  a  child. 


12  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

This  friend  fell  sick ;  he  was  baptized  into  the  Christian 
faith  ;  he  rebuked  the  error  of  Augustine  ;  he  died. 
His  death  filled  Augustine's  soul  with  grief ;  and  the 
circumstances  may  have  also  created  a  longing  for  a 
comfort  in  grief  which  perhaps  the  Christian  faith 
would  supply.  In  his  revulsion  of  feeling  he  left  Tha- 
gaste  and  went  back  to  Carthage.  Here  he  remained 
several  years,  "for  love  of  gain  making  sale  of  loquacity," 
as  he  afterwards  describes  it.'  His  dissatisfaction  with 
Manichaeism  was  all  this  while  increasing ;  he  saw, 
more  and  more,  that  its  doctrines  of  God  and  the  world, 
and  especially  of  evil  and  its  nature,  were  vain  delu- 
sions. As  a  system,  it  had  not  kept  its  promises  of 
wisdom  and  truth ;  and  when  at  last  he  got  no  answer 
to  his  difficulties  in  a  long-desired  conference  with 
Faustus,  their  most  distinguished  bishop,  he  became 
disgusted  with  the  sect,  and  determined  to  abandon  it. 
This  was  in  his  twenty-ninth  year.  {Conf.  v.  3,  7.) 
Very  soon  after  (probably  in  A.D.  383),  contrary  to  his 
mother's  wishes,  and  deceiving  her  at  the  time  of  his 
going  {Conf.  v.  8),  he  removed  to  Rome,  in  response  to 
inducements  of  friends,  who  represented  that  in  that 
city  he  would  gain  higher  honors  and  advantages,  and 
chiefly  that  he  would  have  a  more  quiet  set  of  students. 
There,  not  unnaturally,  from  his  connection  with  the 
sect,  he  still  associated  with  the  Manichaeans.  But  his 
defence  of  their  opinions  must  have  been  only  outward. 
The  fact  is  he  was  utterly  unsettled,  "  hopeless  of  find- 

•  At  this  time,  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  he  wrote  his  first  work  De 
apto  €t pithhro,  which  has  been  lost. 


MANICHAEAN  AND  SCEPTIC  13 

ing  the  truth"  {Conf.  v.  10),  and,  knowing  not  what  to 
think  or  believe  about  God  or  himself,  he  was  already 
half  inclined  to  fall  in  with  the  supposed  views  of  the 
Academics,  and  doubt  everything.  Almost  immediately 
on  his  arrival  he  had  been  visited  with  a  serious  illness. 
After  his  recovery,  he  soon  found  that  the  students  here 
were  quite  as  undesirable  as  those  at  Carthage,  though 
in  a  different  way  ;  and  so  he  was  very  glad  of  an  op- 
portunity which  now  offered  of  taking  a  public  profes- 
sorship of  rhetoric  at  Milan,  and  thither  he  came. 

Here  he  was  most  kindly  received  by  S.  Ambrose, 
the  Bishop  of  that  see,  whose  influence  was  to  be  so 
powerful  in  bringing  him  to  the  Christian  faith.  At 
first  Ambrose's  eloquence  charmed  him  ;  then  his  ex- 
planations of  Scripture  won  him  ;  and  he  gradually 
found,  to  his  mingled  shame  and  joy,  that  for  so  many 
years  he  had  been  opposing  an  utter  misrepresentation 
of  Christianity,  —  "  barking,  not  against  the  Catholic 
faith,  but  against  the  parables  of  carnal  imaginations." 
{Conf.  vi.  3.)  But  he  was  no  little  time  in  being  brought 
even  thus  far.  Entirely  renouncing  Manichaeism  {Conf. 
v,  14;  vi.  i),  much  inclined  towards  the  Academics,  who 
"long  detained  him  tossing  in  the  waves"  {De  Bcata 
Vita,  4),  and  actually  becoming  again  a  catechumen, 
this  was  only  "until  something  certain  should  show 
itself  to  him."  iCojif.  v.  14.)  He  continued  long  in 
the  darkness  of  universal  scepticism,  in  utter  despair 
of  ever  finding  the  truth  within  or  without  the  Church. 
{Conf.  V.  13;  vi.  I.)  Even  when  he  was  made  to  see 
his  past  misapprehensions,  through  fear  he  kept  holding 


14  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

back  from  asscntitig  to  anything ;  and  so  his  soul,  "which 
could  not  be  healed  but  by  believing,  lest  it  should 
believe  falsehoods  refused  to  be  cured."  {Conf.  vi.  4.) 
It  must  be  owned  that  he  was  now  largely  convinced, 
intellectually,  by  the  extent  of  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  of  the  Christian  faith  throughout  the 
world  {Conf.  vi.  5,  11)  ;  and  this  test  of  authority  came 
to  have  an  increasing  weight  with  him,  and  to  be  always 
put  before  reason  in  the  demand  for  faiths  But  the 
moral  nature  of  Augustine  needed  a  thorough  renova- 
tion. He  admits  he  was  followed  more  and  more  ctosely 
by  a  Divine  mercy  which  he  knew  not  ;  —  "I  became 
more  wretched,  and  Thou  nearer"  {Conf  vi.  i6);,\vhile 
the  fear  of  death  and  the  judgment  which  never  left 
him,  alone  recalled  him  "from  a  yet  deeper  abyss  of 
carnal  pleasures."  {Id.)  It  is  a  most  sad  picture  to 
contemplate  ;  and  it  must  ever  be  a  wonder  that  his 
high  gifts  and  powers,  now  so  degraded  and  defiled, 
were  not  utterly  destroyed  by  his  licentious  indulgence. 
His  hot,  passionate  temperament  even  from  youth 
seems  never  to  have  been  restrained  from  the  fulfil- 
ment of  sensual  desires.  For  these  many  years  he  had 
been  "  befouling  the  spring  of  friendship  with  the  filth 
of  concupiscence."  {Conf  iii.  i.)  While  a  student  at 
Carthage,  he  had  become  a  father ;  and  his  son  he  had 
piously  (i*)  named  Adeodatus.  His  mother  had  often 
desired  marriage  for  him  ;  now  her  plans  seemed  likely 
to  succeed  ;  he  sent  back  to  Africa  the  mother  of  his 
child;  but,  having  become  so  base  a  slave  to  carnal  lust, 

'  Cf.  Ep.  cxviii.  32. 


DRAWN  TOWARDS  THE   TRUTH  15 

he  could  not  wait  for  the  maiden  whom  he  was  to  marry  ; 
and  ended  in  only  putting  away  one  mistress  to  take 
another.  {Coiif.  vi.  12,  15.)  And  all  this  time,  while 
his  "  sins  were  being  multiplied,"  his  intellect  was 
soaring  to  loftiest  heights  of  speculation  upon  religious 
questions,  of  the  nature  of  God  and  the  soul,  of  incar- 
nation and  redemption,  of  the  origin  of  evil,  of  the 
authority  of  Scripture,  of  the  bounds  of  reason  and 
faith,  etc.  —  all  which  were  to  him  thus  far  o?ily  specu- 
lative questions.  But  God  was  leading  him.  The  Pla- 
tonic (or  perhaps  more  strictly  Neo-Platonic)  doctrines 
proved  an  efficient  awakening  influence.  In  this  phi- 
losophy, which  he  ever  after  considered  to  be  the  best 
of  the  old  systems  and  to  contain  deep  spiritual  wisdom, 
he  now  found  a  mighty  incentive.  It  was  so  rich  in 
truth,  — and  yet  it  stopped  just  short  of  what  he  most 
needed,  —  the  great  truth  of  the  Incarnation,  the  humil- 
ity of  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  Word  made  flesh !  So  Pla- 
tonism  moved  Augustine  to  turn  again  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  especially  to  S.  Paul's  Epistles  {Conf. 
vii.  21)  ;  and  this  time  it  was  to  find  in  God's  Word, 
under  the  interpretation  of  the  Church,  the  divine 
foundation  of  faith,  the  all  powerful  motive  to  a  holy 
life.  We  need  not  dwell  upon  the  further  incidents 
previous  to  his  conversion.  He  could  no  longer  say  he 
had  no  clear  perception  of  truth  ;  "  now  it  was  certain  " 
{Co7if.  viii.  5),  he  was  convinced,  he  was  persuaded. 
The  lower  animal  desires,  and  these  alone,  made  him 
continue  to  hesitate  a  little  longer ;  and  they  had  a 
wonderful  power  over  him  to  the  very  day  of  his  con- 


1 6  .S-^^  INT  A  UG  USTIA'E 

version  ;  but  at  last,  after  many  violent  struggles,  coming 
to  a  firm  purpose  on  this  point,  and  willing  resolutely 
and  thoroughly  {Conf.  viii.  8),  through  deep  anguish 
and  many  tears  and  prayers,  the  conflict  was  ended  in 
submission  and  peace.  When  we  think  of  what  Augus- 
tine's career  had  been  thus  far,  it  is  not  strange  that, 
in  the  mighty  reaction  which  came  upon  him,  he  should 
have  adopted  henceforth  the  celibate  and  the  ascetic 
life.  "Thou  didst  so  convert  me  unto  Thyself,"  he 
says,  "  that  I  sought  neither  a  wife  nor  any  other  of 
this  world's  hopes."  {Coiif.  viii.  12.)  Herein  his  case 
is  not  to  be  made  a  law  or  guide  for  others  ;  any  more 
than  his  subsequent  peculiar  teachings  upon  marriage 
need  be  accepted  in  their  entireness. 

Augustine's  conversion  took  place  in  the  summer  of 
A.D.  386.  Resigning  his  professorship  as  soon  as  vaca- 
tion gave  him  opportunity,  he  spent  some  months  in 
retirement  with  certain  of  his  friends  at  a  villa  a  few 
miles  out  of  the  city.  Here  he  composed  his  treatises 
Contra  Academicos,  De  Ordinc,  Dc  Beata  Vita,  and  the 
Soliloquioriim  duo  Libri.  He  was  baptized  by  S.  Am- 
brose, in  his  church  in  Milan,  on  Easter-eve,  the  25th 
of  April,  A.D.  387,  and  with  him  his  son  Adeodatus 
and  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends  Alypius.  His 
mother  was  the  happy  witness  of  his  baptism,  rejoicing 
in  the  answer  to  her  many  prayers.  They  determined 
to  return  to  their  native  country  ;  but  at  the  port  of 
Ostia,  Monica,  who  felt  that  she  had  no  more  to  live 
for,  now  that  her  son  had  become  a  Catholic  Christian, 
fell   ill  and   died.     Changing  his  plans,  Augustine  re- 


CONVERSIOA'  AiYD    ORDIXATION  IJ 

mained  in  Rome  until  the  next  year,  and  wrote  the  De 
qiiantitate  animae,  the  greater  part  of  the  De  moribus 
Ecclcsiae  Catholicae  et  de  moribus  ManicJiaeoTiim,  and 
began  the  De  Libera  Arbitrio,  which  he  finished  some 
years  later,  (a.d.  395.)  In  the  summer  of  a.d.  388 
he  returned  to  Thagaste,  where  he  founded  a  small 
religious  community,  at  whose  head  he  continued  for 
three  years ;  during  this  period  writing  the  De  Geiiesi 
contra  Manichaeos,  De  Musica,  De  Magistro,  and  De 
Vera  Religione.  The  fame  of  his  ability  and  devotion 
soon  spread.  He  was  eagerly  sought,  for  more  active 
labors  ;  and  in  a.d.  391,  against  his  own  wishes,  ac- 
cording to  a  custom  then  prevalent,  he  was  ordained 
a  priest  by  Valerius,  Bishop  of  Hippo,  for  service  in 
the  church  of  that  city.  Here  his  eloquence  in  preach- 
ing was  equalled  only  by  his  loving  zeal  for  the  Church, 
and  his  power  in  controversy  against  her  mistaken  oppo- 
nents. Besides  discharging  the  duties  of  the  priest- 
hood, he  now  found  time  to  write  several  exegetical 
works,  as  well  as  the  important  treatises  against  the 
Manichaeans,  De  Utilitate  Credendi,  and  De  duabjis 
Animabiis,  and  the  Dispiitatio  contra  Fortimatum.'-  In 
A.D.  395,  at  the  age  of  forty-one,  he  was  consecrated 
Bishop,  as  coadjutor  to  Valerius,^  who  died  after  a  few 
months,  leaving  him  Bishop  of  Hippo.     From  the  time 

'  This  tract  Milman  thinks  "  gives  the  fairest  view  of  the  real  contro- 
versy" with  the  Manichaeans.     History  of  Christianity,  Vol.  II.  p.  278. 

^  From  Ep.  ccxiii.,  written  in  a.d.  426,  we  learn  that  both  Valerius 
and  himself  were  ignorant  of  the  inconsistency  of  the  consecration  of 
coadjutor  bishops  with  the  injunction  of  the  8th  Canon  of  the  Council 
of  Nice. 


1 8  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

of  his  ordination  to  the  priesthood,  he  had  continued 
the  mode  of  living  in  religious  community,  which  he 
had  established  at  Thagaste.  Now,  as  Bishop,  with 
his  clergy  about  him,  he  maintained  great  plainness  of 
food  and  dress,  and  even  in  his  ministrations  is  said  to 
have  refused  to  wear  costly  vestments. 

We  cannot  dwell  upon  the  long  episcopate  of  S. 
Augustine.  It  became  more  and  more  celebrated,  until 
his  was  the  great  name  throughout  the  Western  Church. 
This  wide  reputation  came  principally  from  his  zeal  and 
ability  in  defence  of  Christian  doctrine.  His  philo- 
sophical spirit,  logical  acumen,  and  dialectical  skill, 
wonderfully  helped  by  a  glowing  imagination  and  most 
facile  use  of  language,  with  a  foundation  of  considerable 
learning,  and  certainly  of  deep  spiritual  compichension 
of  Scripture,  proved  powerful  means  of  winning  mul- 
titudes to  Christian  allegiance,  and  mighty  weapons 
against  the  opposition  of  heresy  and  schism.  He  had 
himself  gone  through  dreadful  conflicts  with  sin  and 
doubt,  in  coming  to  the  peace  and  stability  of  Chris- 
tianity. He  had  some  definite  idea  of  what  the  Christian 
faith  and  the  Christian  Church,  sin  and  salvation.  Divine 
grace  and  human  frailty  meant.  Living  in  a  time  of 
intense  worldliness  and  of  real  decline  of  spirituality, 
of  dissension  and  open  strife  among  those  who  called 
themselves  Christians,  and  of  the  lingering  power  of 
paganism  upon  all  classes  of  society,  he  deemed  the 
promotion  of  a  right  Christian  belief  and  of  a  Christian 
living  which  legitimately  flowed  therefrom,  not  a  mere 
matter  of  opinion,  but  one  of  divinely  revealed  obliga- 


PRINCIPAL    WRITINGS 


19 


tion,  —  one  which  he  ought  to  urge  with  all  the  powers 
which  God  had  given  him.  Known  eminently  from  that 
day  to  this  as  a  controversialist,  his  place  of  honor  as  a 
theologian,  and  the  wide  and  full  range  of  his  abilities 
as  a  teacher  in  the  Church  cannot  be  questioned. 

We  naturally  find  his  mature  energies  first  directed 
against  the  Manichaeans,  from  whose  snares  he  had 
recently  escaped.  In  addition  to  the  treatises  which 
he  had  already  written,  he  now  produced  other  and 
more  extensive  works  against  them  ;  among  which  may 
be  mentioned  the  Contra  Epistolam  MmiicJiaei  quam 
vacant  fiindameiiti,  the  long  work  Cojitra  Fanstum,  in 
23  books,  the  De  Natttra  Boni,  and  the  Contra  Seaindi- 
num,  which  last  was  his  own  preference  among  his 
writings  against  Manichaeism,     {Retract,  ii.  10.) 

In  opposition  to  the  Donatist  schism,  its  unscriptural 
doctrines  and  fanatical  practices,  he  wrote  a  number  of 
works,  mostly  between  the  years  400  and  412;  the 
principal  ones  being  the  Contra  Epistolam  Parmeniani, 
De  Baptismo,  Cojitra  literas  Petiliani,  and  the  De  Uni- 
tate  Ecclesiae. 

Perhaps  of  more  distinct  significance  than  any  of  the 
works  hitherto  named,  —  certainly  of  much  more  wide- 
reaching  influence  in  the  history  of  Christian  doctrine, 
were  his  writings  against  Pelagianism.  These  were 
some  sixteen  in  number,  called  out,  one  after  another, 
by  the  exigency  of  the  situation,  from  a.d,  412  on  to 
the  close  of  his  life  in  a.d.  430,  —  one  being  left  un- 
finished. The  very  titles  of  most  of  these  works  show 
the  general  nature  of  their  contents,  and  the  greatness 


20  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

of  the  subjects  considered  ;  e.g.  De  Spiritit  ct  litcra,  Dc 
natura  et  gratia,  De  perfectione  jiistitiae  Jiominis,  Dc 
gratia  Christi,  De  peccato  originali,  De  anima  et  ejus 
origine,  De  gratia  et  libero  arbitrio,  Dc  corrcptione  et 
gratia,  De  pracdestiiiatioue  sanctorum,  De  dono  perscve- 
rantiae. 

Along  with  these  writings  against  Manichaeans  and 
Donatists,  and  the  early  part  of  those  against  the 
Pelagians,  S.  Augustine  was  producing  also  many  mis- 
cellaneous short  treatises,  upon  various  topics  of  faith 
and  morals,  too  numerous  even  for  enumeration  here, 
but  which  are  of  much  value,  and  have  had  a  lasting 
reputation  :  his  extensive  exegetical  works,  chiefly  upon 
the  Psalms  and  upon  the  writings  of  S.  John,  formed 
part  of  his  labor ;  he  was  constantly  preaching,  and 
some  four  hundred  well  authenticated  sermons  of  his 
have  come  down  to  us  ;  moreover,  there  have  been  pre- 
served more  than  two  hundred  of  his  Epistles,  many  of 
which  were  elaborate  monographs. 

We  do  not  forget,  and  we  would  make  special  refer- 
ence to  three  other  great  works  of  his,  either  one  of 
which  would  have  enshrined  his  name  in  perpetual  re- 
membrance. Surely  S.  Augustine's  was  not  only  an 
industrious  life,  that,  with  all  the  cares  of  his  Episco- 
pate, he  could  write  so  fully  as  we  have  already  stated  ; 
but  it  was  the  life  of  a  man  of  remarkable  genius,  won- 
derful richness  of  mind,  and  depth  of  spiritual  insight, 
which  could  produce  the  Confessiones,  the  De  Trinitate, 
and  the  De  Civitate  Dei.  The  Confessiones  were  written 
about  the  year  400  (some  say  397).     The  De  Trinitate, 


OTHER  GREAT  WORKS  21 

which  many  have  thought  to  be  the  loftiest  work  of  his 
genius,  occupied  him  at  least  sixteen  years,  from  a.d. 
400,  and  perhaps  a  longer  time.  He  shrank  from  pub- 
lishing it  to  the  last ;  and  probably  would  not  have 
done  so  when  he  did,  and  without  further  revision,  had 
not  the  unfinished  work  been  stolen  and  made  public. 
The  De  Civitate  Dei  v]-a.s,  begun  in  a.d.  413,  and  com- 
pleted in  A.D.  426.  This  has  been  generally  regarded 
as  his  master-piece  ;  and  it  is  so  well  known  that  it  does 
not  need,  any  more  than  the  Confessioncs,  any  full  analy- 
sis in  this  place.  Presenting  to  his  own  age  a  bold  and 
convincing  apology  for  Christianity,  it  became  to  all 
ages  the  earliest  philosophy  of  history ;  and  in  both 
aspects  the  work  has  high  claim  upon  the  grateful  re- 
gard of  mankind.  Its  range  of  thought  is  very  wide ; 
it  comprises  some  of  its  author's  most  mature  opinions 
upon  topics  of  philosophy  and  theology ;  it  anticipates 
many  of  the  speculations  of  modern  times. 

A  few  words  upon  the  Retractationcs  may  complete 
our  sketch  of  S.  Augustine's  literary  labors.  In  this 
work,  written  in  a.d.  427  or  428,  he  carefully  reviews 
his  previous  writings,  of  course  explaining  former  opin- 
ions by  present  ones,  and,  where  possible,  striving  to 
bring  the  earlier  views  into  harmony  with  the  later. 
For  him  to  have  pursued  any  different  course  would  not, 
it  would  seem,  have  been  thought  strange  by  some  who 
have  unduly  criticised  his  criticism   of  himself.'     We 

'  Neander's  Hist,  of  the  Christian  Rdigiott  and  Church,  (Toirey's 
transl.)  Vol.  II.  p.  694;  Mozley's  Augiistinian  Doctrine,  etc.  p.  360; 
Owen's  Evenings  with  the  Skeptics,  Vol.  II.  p.  140. 


22  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

leave  to  the  bitterness  of  scepticism  the  rash  implica- 
tion that  this  aged  saint  had  now  lost  all  his  comprehen- 
siveness and  Christian  charity;  and  that  the  opinions  he 
now  rejected  would  make  a  better  Christian  creed  than 
those  he  accepted."  He  wrote  of  himself  with  a  candor 
generally  admitted  ;  explaining,  qualifying,  and,  where 
he  thought  necessary,  contradicting  what  he  had  pre- 
viously written  and  even  admitting  former  opinions  to 
have  been  downright  errors.  Thus  much  it  is  well  for 
us  to  note  just  at  this  point ;  for  even  aside  from  special 
influences  which  we  know  had  great  weight  in  the  latter 
part  of  his  career,  it  was  only  natural  that  any  one  who 
had  lived  so  long  and  written  so  much  should  have 
uttered  contradictions.  It  is  often  said  that  S.  Augus- 
tine can  be  quoted  in  favor  of  diametrically  opposed 
doctrines.  This  is  to  a  certain  extent  true,  and  for  the 
reason  which  we  have  given.  He  had  a  deep  humility. 
He  thought  a  man  to  be  "more  a  consummate  fool  than 
perfectly  wise  "  of  whom  it  could  be  said  that  he  had 
never  uttered  a  word  which  he  did  not  wish  to  recall ; 
that  the  highest  standard  was  to  have  never  uttered  a 
word  which  it  would  be  his  duty  to  recall ;  and  that  he 
who  had  not  attained  to  this,  should  take  the  second 
place  through  his  humility,  as  he  could  not  take  the 
first  through  his  wisdom.^  Accordingly  his  estimate  of 
himself  (and  let  any  prove  that  it  was  not  the  correct 
one)  was  that  consistency  was  not  of  so  much  worth  as 
to  have  made  progress.^     He  says  at  this  time  that  he 

'  Owen,  ui  su/>ra.  *  .£/>.  cxliii.  3.     A.D.  412.  '  /d.2.     De  don 

pcrscv.  55. 


CLOSE  OF  HIS  LIFE  23 

is  writing  the  Retractationes  to  demonstrate  that  even 
he  himself  has  not  in  all  things  followed  himself  ;  admits 
that  he  did  not  begin  from  perfection,  and  has  not  yet 
in  this  age  (74  years)  reached  perfection  ;  and  affirms 
that  there  is  good  hope  of  him  whom  the  last  day  of 
life  shall  find  so  progressing,  that  whatever  is  wanting 
may  be  added,  and  that  he  may  be  adjudged  rather  to 
need  perfecting  than  punishment.' 

In  A.D.  429  the  Vandals  under  Genseric  invaded 
Africa,  at  the  invitation  of  Count  Boniface,  who  had 
been  deceived  into  rebellion  against  the  Empire,  and 
had  summoned  the  barbarians  to  enable  him  to  main- 
tain himself.  Discovering  the  treachery  which  had 
been  practised  against  him,  and  returning  to  his  alle- 
giance, it  was  too  late  to  save  the  country  from  the 
invaders.  They  readily  made  allies  of  the  Donatists 
throughout  the  provinces,  and  fiercely  pressed  on  in 
their  career  of  conquest.  Boniface  retired  to  Hippo, 
and  the  city  was  besieged.  In  the  third  month,  on  the 
28th  of  August,  A.D.  430,  the  aged  Bishop,  who  had 
been  bitterly  tried  by  the  miseries  of  the  times,  and 
thought  that  men  ought  to  ascribe  Africa's  calamities 
to  their  own  sins,  was  mercifully  taken  away,  after  not 
a  long  illness.  With  the  words  of  the  Penitential 
Psalms  written  out  and  hung  on  the  wall  before  his 
eyes,  he  had  bade  his  friends  leave  him  to  himself  as 
much  as  possible ;  and  so  he  spent  the  last  few  days  in 
solitude,  and  prayer,  and  tears.     He  died  a  penitent. 

'  De  don.  persev.  55. 


24  SA/AT  AUGUSTINE 

In  going  on  to  a  survey  of  the  principal  teaching  of 
S.  Augustine,  we  shall  first  follow  the  line  of  the  three 
great  controversies  which  have  been  referred  to.  He 
has  very  important  and  characteristic  points  of  teach- 
ing which  do  not  directly  concern  either  of  those  con- 
troversies, though  they  may  be  found  in  part  in  the 
writings  which  they  called  out.  Such  doctrines  we 
shall  subsequently  consider  to  some  extent.  At  the 
outset  we  must  say  that  we  shall  not  aim  at  any  treat- 
ment of  S.  Augustine's  philosophy  proper. 

Ma7iichaeism,  of  the  writings  against  which  we  are 
first  to  speak,  was  a  strange,  eclectic  system,  founded 
upon  the  ancient  Chaldaism,  combining  therewith  Per- 
sian and  (in  the  West  especially)  Christian  elements. 
Its  prominent  mark  was  its  absolute  dualism.  Teach- 
ing without  compromise  the  two  principles  of  good  and 
evil,  light  and  darkness,  both  of  them  eternal,  and  both 
eternally  distinct,  it  practically  taught  two  gods.  From 
this  dualistic  beginning  it  developed  a  most  fantastic 
mythology ;  while,  connected  with  its  weird  fancies 
about  creation  and  nature,  it  established  an  ethical 
theory  of  bald  materialism,  whereby  the  work  of  life 
was  made  to  consist  in  the  constant  effort  to  separate 
the  elements  of  light  from  the  darkness ;  which  meant, 
in  actual  morality,  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  ascetic 
abstinence  with  no  end  beyond  itself.  The  Manichae- 
ans  spurned  Judaism,  and  equally  spurned  Catholic 
Christianity,  Yet  in  the  West  they  called  themselves 
Christians,  and  their  organization  in  some  points  faintly 
resembled  that  of  the  Christian  Church.     They  rejected 


PRINCIPLES  OF  MANICHAEISM  25 

the  Old  Testament,  and  basely  perverted  the  New  ;  they 
held  spurious  dogmas  of  a  Trinity,  an  Incarnation,  and 
an  Atonement ;  professing  to  believe  in  Christ,  who 
was  to  them  only  a  phantom,  they  took  what  they 
pleased  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and  His  Apostles,  and 
with  their  own  interpretation.  The  system  proclaimed 
loud  promises  of  knowledge  and  wisdom  to  all  who 
were  in  search  of  truth,  and  professed  to  require  noth- 
ing to  be  received  which  had  not  the  proof  of  reason. 
Such  permitted  rationalism  in  belief,  such  inducement 
of  "spiritual  benefits  on  the  basis  of  the  religion  of 
nature,"  had  made  Manichaeism  widely  popular  in  the 
West ;  and  it  was  in  North  Africa  that  it  gained  its 
largest  following. 

Augustine,  who  had  perhaps  been  won  to  the  system 
chiefly  by  its  plausible  theory  of  the  origin  of  evil,  was 
delivered  from  it  very  much  through  its  failure  to  sat- 
isfy his  deeper  questionings  on  this  same  subject.  Now 
he  set  himself  to  oppose  its  many  errors,  with  earnest- 
ness and  confidence  in  the  truth,  and  at  the  same  time 
with  a  gentleness  and  meekness  and  desire  to  restore 
rather  than  to  discomfit  his  adversaries  which  are  worthy 
of  note,  as  not  only  shown  here,  but  as  being  the  spirit 
which  he  uniformly  maintained  in  controversy.  "  Let 
those  treat  you  angrily,"  he  says,  "who  know  not  the 
labor  necessary  to  find  the  truth,  and  the  amount  of 
caution  required  to  avoid  error."  .  .  .  "Let  those  treat 
you  angrily,  who  know  not  with  what  sighs  and  groans 
the  least  particle  of  the  knowledge  of  God  is  obtained." 
..."  Let  neither  of  us  assert  that  he  has  found  truth," 


26  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

he  exhorts ;  "let  us  seek  it  as  if  it  were  unknown  to  us 
both."  ' 

The  teachings  of  S.  Augustine  against  Manichaeism 
relate  principally  to  the  Being  of  God,  the  nature  of 
good,  the  nature  and  origin  of  evil,  the  freedom  of  the 
will,  the  authority  of  Scripture,  the  limits  of  reason  and 
faith.  Much  of  what  he  here  says  about  God,  and  about 
evil,  is  also  given  more  fully  and  in  more  direct  connec- 
tion with  the  hold  which  Manichaean  error  once  had  upon 
him,  in  the  Confessions.  God  is  the  one,  almighty  Creator, 
infinite  in  goodness  and  power.  He  is  spirit ;  not  the 
material  existence  which  Manichaeism  fancied  Him,  with 
properties  of  extension  into  space  ;  ^  yet  a  real  Being, 
not  an  empty  phantasm.^  He  is  "the  unchangeable 
Light,"  yet  not  "the  corporeal  brightness  "  which  he 
once  conceived  Him  to  be,  —  "a  bright  and  vast  body, 
and  [himself]  a  piece  of  that  body."  ■♦  "God  is  His  own 
eternal  happiness,  .  .  .  His  own  eternal  light ;  "  5  .  .  . 
"the  God  we  worship  did  not  abide  from  eternity  in 
darkness,  but  is  Himself  light,  and  in  Him  is  no  dark- 
ness at  all ;  and  in  Himself  dwells  in  light  inaccessible  ; 
and  the  brightness  of  this  light  is  His  co-eternal  wis- 
dom."^ God  is  unchangeable  and  incorruptible.  "It 
cannot  properly  be  said  of  the  real  substance  of  God 
that  it  has  the  choice  of  sinning  or  not  sinning,  for 
God's  substance  is  absolutely  unchangeable.  God  can- 
not sin,  as  He  cannot  destroy  Himself."  ^     God  is  the 

■  Con.  Epis.  Man.  ii.  iii.  ^  Conf.  iii.  7  ;   con.  Epis.  liTan.  xv.  xix. 

^  Cotif.  iv.  5,  7,  &c.         *  Cottf.  iv.  2,  16;  vii.  10.         *  Con.  Faust,  xxii.  g. 
*  Id.  xxii.  21.         '  /(/.  .xxii.  22. 


AGAINST  DUALISM  27 

chief  good  of  all  His  creatures ;  for  He  is  the  supreme, 
the  true  existence.''  "  To  reach  God  is  happiness  itself."  ^ 
He  is  "the  author  of  all  natures  ;"  ^  hence,  all  natures, 
as  such,  are  good ;  and  it  is  the  nature  of  good,  that  it  is 
all  from  Him ;  while  it  is  the  nature  of  evil  (negatively), 
that  it  is  not  from  Him.  Augustine  goes  farther  than 
this,  and  sets  forth  now  the  teaching  to  which  he  always 
adhered,  that  evz/  has  no  real  existence,  —  it  is  but  the 
negation  of  existence.  "There  is  no  nature  contrary 
to  God.  .  .  .  You  ask  me.  Whence  is  evil }  I  ask  you 
in  return.  What  is  evil  }  .  .  .  Evil  is  that  which  is  con- 
trary to  nature  ;  .  .  .  Evil  is  no  nature,  if  it  is  contrary 
to  nature.  ""♦  Again,  "The  second  kind  of  good  is  called 
a  creature,  which  is  liable  to  hurt  through  falling  away. 
But  of  this  falling  away  God  is  not  the  author,  for  He 
is  the  author  of  existence  and  of  being.  Here  we  see 
the  proper  use  of  the  word  evil ;  for  it  is  correctly  ap- 
plied not  to  essence,  but  to  negation  or  loss."  s  "  When 
the  Catholic  Church  declares  that  God  is  the  author  of 
all  natures  and  substances,  those  who  understand  this 
understand  at  the  same  time  that  God  is  not  the  author 
of  evil.  For  how  can  He  Who  is  the  cause  of  the  being 
of  all  things  be  at  the  same  time  the  cause  of  their  not 
being,  that  is,  of  their  falling  off  from  essence  and 
tending  to  non-existence }  For  this  is  what  reason 
plainly  declares  to  be  the  definition  of  evil."^ 

Yet  this  which  has  no  true  existence,  and  is  thereby 

'  De  Mor.  Manich.  i.        ^  De  Mor.  Ecdes.  xi.         ^  Con.  Epis.  Man. 
xxxiii.  *  De  Mor.  Manich.  i.  ii.         ^  De  Mor.  Manich.  iv.         *"  De 

Mor,  Manich.  ii. 


28  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

proved  to  be  not  from  God,  Augustine  owns  fills  the 
heart  with  fear.  {Conf.  vii.  5.)  "  Whence  is  it  ?  "  — he 
once  and  again  exclaims.  Against  the  Manichaeans, 
who  argued  that  they  sinned  from  natural  necessity,  — 
it  was  not  they,  but  the  nature  of  darkness  in  them 
{Conf.  vii.  3),  he  put  the  origin  of  sin  and  of  evil  in  the 
freedo7n  of  the  will.  "  There  is  no  need  "  he  says  "  of 
the  origin  of  evil  in  an  imaginary  evil  nature  "  (referring 
to  the  original  dualism  of  this  system),  "  since  it  is  to  be 
found  in  free-will.  .  .  .  The  origin  of  sin  is  in  the  will ; 
therefore  in  the  will  is  also  the  origin  of  evil,  .  .  .  You 
take  away  the  origin  of  evil  from  free-will,  and  place  it 
in  a  fabulous  nature  of  evil."  '  But  what  is  that/zr^-- 
will,  it  may  be  asked,  to  which  Augustine  here  refers .-' 
—  that  of  man  in  his  original  state,  or  of  man  as  fallen  ? 
Plainly  the  former:  —  and  yet  it  is  an  open  question 
whether  he  did  not  use  the  term,  during  all  this  period, 
both  of  the  one  condition  and  of  the  other.  Because 
he  writes,  e.g.  in  certain  connections  in  the  De  Libcro 
Arbitrio,  that  he  is  speaking  of  that  freedom  in  which 
man  was  created,""  it  has  been  perhaps  too  necessarily 
inferred  that  he  must  be  always  so  understood  in  that 
treatise.^  That  he  meant  to  represent  this  cause  of  sin 
as  an  original,  self-determining  power — whether  before 
or  after  the  Fall  —  is  abundantly  manifest.  Witness 
such  passages  as  these  :  —  "  Since  the  will  is  the  cause 
of  sin,  and  you  ask  the  cause  of  that  will  ;  if  I  can  dis- 
cover this,  will  you  not  also  seek  the  cause  of  this  cause  .-* 

'  Con.  Faust,  xxii.  22.         *  1.  iii.  c.  i8.         ^  Mozley's  Aug'ti  Doctr.  etc. 
p.  206. 


FREEDOM   OF   THE    WILL  29 

And  what  limit  of  seeking  can  there  be,  what  end  of 
inquiry  and  discussion,  —  since  you  ought  not  to  go  be- 
yond the  root  ? "  *  "  But  what  can  be  the  cause  of  will, 
antecedent  to  will  ?  For  either  there  exists  the  will 
itself,  and  there  is  no  going  back  of  that  root  of  will ;  or 
there  is  no  will,  and  in  that  case  no  sin.  Either,  then, 
the  will  itself  is  the  first  cause  of  sinning,  or  no  sin  is 
that  first  cause."  ^  Again,  a  true  freedom,  or  power  of 
choice,  seems  to  be  ascribed  to  man  in  his  present  state 
in  the  De  Diiabus  Animabus.  And  what  else  but  a  true 
freedom  in  man  fallen  is  implied  in  this  passage  .-' —  He 
has  been  speaking  of  the  angels  as  so  created  that  they 
had  the  power  of  restraining  their  desires  from  the  un- 
lawful ;  and  in  not  doing  this,  they  sinned.  "  Great, 
then,"  he  continues,  "  is  the  creature  man,  for  he  is  re- 
stored by  this  potentiality,  by  which,  if  he  had  so  chosen, 
he  would  not  have  fallen."  ^  It  is  the  same  power  which 
restores  him  that  originally  kept  him.  Whether  S. 
Augustine  afterwards  came  to  deny  free-will  under  the 
pressure  of  the  Pelagian  controversy,  must  be  considered 
in  its  proper  connection.  But  that  he  now  maintained 
It,  in  its  self-determining  power,  and  found  therein  the 
only  satisfactory  cause  of  evil,  as  against  the  Manichaean 
notion  of  necessity,  may  perhaps  be  admitted,  with  but 
little,  if  any,  qualification.'* 

What  he  says  upon  Holy  Scripture,  forms  a  very  im- 
portant part  of  S.  Augustine's  teaching  at  this  period. 
In  one  of  these  treatises  occurs  his  well  known  declara- 

'  De  Lib.  Arbit.  iii.  48.  ^  Id.  iii.  49.  ^  Ct7«,   Faust,   xxii.    28. 

■•  Cf.  Neander,  id  sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  626. 


30  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

tion,  "  I  should  not  believe  the  gospel,  except  as  moved 
by  the  authority  of  the  Church,"  '  —  wherein  he  openly 
affirms  the  true  ground  for  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
and  takes  a  position  from  which  there  can  be  no  alter- 
native but  the  individualism  which  he  charges  against 
Faustus  ;  —  "  Your  design  clearly  is  to  deprive  Scripture 
of  all  authority,  and  to  make  every  man's  mind  the 
judge  what  passage  of  Scripture  he  is  to  approve  of, 
and  what  to  disapprove  of."  '  These  Manichaeans  re- 
jected the  Old  Testament,  but  professed  to  receive  part 
of  the  New.  S.  Augustine  defends  the  whole,  as  the 
Word  of  God, 5  handed  down  in  the  Church  from  the 
Apostles,^  and  exhibiting  clear  proofs  of  its  claims  in 
the  extent  of  its  conquest  of  the  world.s  He  maintains 
the  oneness  of  Scripture,  and  shows  that  where  there 
are  apparent  contradictions,  there  is  real  harmony. 
This  principle  he  urges,  as  between  different  portions 
of  either  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament,  and  especially 
as  between  the  Old  and  the  New.  One  will  stand  or 
fall  with  the  other.  The  Old  Testament  he  considers 
as  chiefly  typical,  in  both  conduct  and  precept  ;  as  fore- 
shadowing the  New,  and  particularly  telling  of  Christ, 

'  Con.  Epis.  Man.  v.  It  is  amazing  to  find  the  objection  actually 
raised  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Chuich  {Continuity  of  Christian  Thought, 
p.  150),  that  "the  Church  for  which  is  claimed  such  supreme  authority,  is 
not  the  consentient  reason  of  those  who  are  enlightened  by  a  divine 
teacher  speaking  within  the  soul"!  —  i.e.  it  is  something  different  from 
that  "human  consciousness"  which  this  writer  regards  as  "the  ultimate 
source  of  authority  in  religious  truth"  (pp.  17,  59,  60) ;  but  it  is  something 
definite  and  visible,  the  institution  of  God  in  the  world. 

^  Con.  Faust,  xxxii.  19.         ^  Id.  xxii.  16.        *  Id.  xi.  5.        ^  /^/.  xxii.  Co. 


SCRIPTURE  AND  ITS  INTERPRETATION       31 

"No  one  doubts,'"'  he  writes,  "that  promises  of  tempo- 
ral things  are  contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  for  which 
reason  it  is  called  the  Old  Testament  ;  or  that  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  and  the  promise  of  eternal  life  belong 
to  the  New  Testament.  But  that  in  these  temporal 
things  were  figures  of  future  things  which  should  be 
fulfilled  in  us  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are 
come,  is  not  my  fancy,  but  the  judgment  of  the  Apostle. 
.  .  .  We  receive  the  Old  Testament,  therefore,  not  in 
order  to  obtain  the  fulfilment  of  these  promises,  but  to 
see  in  them  predictions  of  the  New  Testament ;  for  the 
Old  bears  witness  to  the  New.  .  .  .  Nor  do  we  believe 
that  the  holy  and  spiritual  men  of  these  times,  the 
patriarchs  and  prophets,  were  taken  up  with  temporal 
things.  For  they  understood,  by  the  revelation  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  what  was  suitable  for  that  time,  and  how 
God  appointed  all  these  sayings  and  actions  as  types 
and  predictions  of  the  future.  Their  great  desire  was 
for  the  New  Testament ;  but  they  had  a  personal  duty 
to  perform  in  these  predictions,  by  which  the  new 
things  of  the  future  were  foretold.  So  the  life  as  well 
as  the  tongue  of  these  men  was  prophetic."  '  This 
matter  of  symbolism  and  allegory  S.  Augustine  often 
carried  too  far,  as  we  know,  in  his  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  especially  of  minute  events  in  the  historical 
books  ;  only  regretting,  as  he  says  again  and  again,  that 
the  length  of  his  writing  already  will  not  permit  him  to 
go  farther  in  his  fine-spun  analogies.^  And  yet,  in  his 
supreme  regard  for  the  hmer  meaning  of  Scripture,  it 
*  Id.  iv.  2  J  xxii.  24.  ^  Id.  xxii.  86. 


32  SALXT  AUGUSTINE 

must  be  owned  that  he  kept  sight  of  the  literal  sense, 
—  according  to  a  general  rule  of  interpretation  among 
the  Fathers  ; '  here  in  his  controversy  against  the  Mani- 
chaeans,  he  examines  the  literal  sense  of  each  of  these 
narratives  "  before  he  touches  the  sacramental  or  mys- 
terious meaning;"^  —  furthermore,  in  that  important 
writing  Dc  Genesi  contra  Manichaeos  he  takes  a  decided 
position  against  the  allegorists  ;  and  then,  several  years 
later,  in  the  De  Genesi  ad  literam,  he  goes  over  the  same 
ground  speaking  even  more  emphatically  than  before. 
But  it  is  a  constant  principle  with  him  that  Scripture  is 
to  be  interpreted  according  to  the  analogy  of  the  faith  ; 
and  so  his  final  end  in  the  investigation  of  lives  and 
words  of  patriarchs  and  prophets  is  plainly  tJie  figure, 
— the  type.  "  Every  part  of  the  narrative  in  the  pro- 
phetical books  "  he  says  "  should  be  viewed  as  having 
a  figurative  meaning,  except  what  serves  merely  as  a 
frame-work  for  the  literal  or  figurative  predictions."  ^ 
He  will  not  argue  with  those  who  will  not  take  the 
narratives  in  this  way  :  —  "to  dispute  about  such  a 
difference  of  understanding  would  be  as  useless  as  to 
dispute  about  a  difference  of  taste."  '*  Moreover,  he 
affirms  that  the  typical  or  prophetical  character  of 
actions  is  not  affected  by  their  own  moral  quality.  "  In 
foretelling  good,  it  is  of  no  consequence  whether  the 
typical  actions  are  good  or  bad.  If  it  is  written  in  red 
ink  that  the  Ethiopians  are  black,  or  in  black  ink  that 

"  Vid.  Keble's  The  Mysticism  attributed  to  the  Early  Fathers,  p.  42;  cf. 
Abp.  Trench's  .S".  Augustine  as  an  Interpreter  etc.  p.  50  et  seq. 

'  Kcble,  ut  sup.  p.  105.         ^  Con.  Faust.  .\.\ii.  94.         ■•  /</.  xxii.  95. 


OLD    TESTAMENT  TYPICAL  33 

the  Gauls  are  white,  this  circumstance  does  not  affect 
the  information  which  the  writing  conveys.     No  doubt 
if   it  was    a   painting  instead  of  a  writing,  the  wrong 
color  would  be  a   fault ;  so,  when  human  actions   are 
represented   for   example    or   warning,    much    depends 
on  whether  they  are   good  or  bad;   but  when  actions 
are  related  or  recorded  as  types,  the  merit  or  demerit 
of  the  agents  is  a  matter  of  no  importance,  so  long  as 
there  is  a  true  typical  relation  between  the  action  and 
the  thing  signified."  '      This  was  one  conclusive  way 
which  he  had  of   explaining  the  morality  of   the  Old 
Testament.     The  Manichaeans,  either  in  reality  or  in 
pretence,  made  a  great  deal  of  the  moral  difficulties  of 
all  that  part  of  the  Bible,  and  sneered  contemptuously  at 
the  character  of  the  Old  Testament  saints.    And  in  reply 
to  them,  besides  this  reference  to  actions  and  events  as 
types,  S.  Augustine  pressed  strongly  the  principle  of 
the   Divine  accommodation   to   the  circumstances  and 
moral  standard  of  earlier  ages,  as  justifying  commands 
and  permissions  which  in  a  later  time  would  be  wrong. 
He  affirms  that  the  true  and  good  God,  and  He  alone, 
could  give  such  commands    rightly  ;  ^   that    the    order 
of   time    demanded    such    a   dispensation  ;  ^   and   asks, 
"Do  they  not  understand  how  precepts  and  counsels 
and  permissions  may  be    changed  without   any  incon- 
stancy in  Him  Who  enjoins  them,  but  by  the  wisdom  of 
Him  Who  dispenses  them  according  to  the  difference  of 
the  times  }  "  ''     This  progressive  character  of  revelation, 
this  gradual   education  of  men  into  the  knowledge  of 

•  /</.  xxii.  83.         ^  Id.  xxii.  72.         ^  j^,  xxii.  76.         "  Id.  xxii.  77. 


34  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

God,  as  pointed  out  by  the  great  Latin  Father,  is  a 
topic  which  several  writers  have  commented  upon ;  and 
Canon  Mozley  has  suggested  that  in  this  method  of  his 
he  has  indicated  the  true  answer  to  objections  of  our 
own  day  against  the  moraHty  of  the  Old  Testament.' 
It  is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  his  teaching  meets 
the  difficulties  of  modern  thought. 

The  Manichaeans  were  rationalists  ;  their  system  was 
one  of  rationalism  ;  and  much  of  what  S.  Augustine 
says  against  them  upon  the  relations  of  reason  and 
faith,  might  be  wholesome  medicine  for  the  rationalism 
of  our  time.  With  him,  having  once  accepted  the 
authority  of  Scripture,  it  is  a  settled  conviction  to 
"believe  because  it  is  written."^  He  would  not  put 
understanding  before  faith,  but  faith  before  understand- 
ing, "Crede  ut  intelligas,"  was  his  bidding.^  Yet  he 
said  truly  that  Catholic  Christians  "do  not  condemn 
the  use  of  reason  ;  "  ^  only  it  must  keep  its  proper  rela- 
tions, and  act  in  its  own  sphere.  He  appears  to  have 
thought  that  in  divine  things  it  was  not  at  first  able  to 
behold.  "  It  falls  back  from  the  light  of  truth,"  he 
says  ;  and  then,  by  appointment  of  Divine  wisdom, 
"we  are  met  by  the  friendly  shade  of  authority."  s  As 
he  developed  this  idea,  later  in  life,  as  given  in  one  of 
his  letters,  it  stood,  —  "  The  perfection  of  method  in 
training  disciples  is,  that  those  who  are  weak  be  en- 
couraged to  the  utmost  to  enter  the  citadel  of  authority, 

*  Ruling  Ideas  of  Early  Ages,  ■^.ziz\  and  cf.  Abp.  Trench,  ut  sup.  p.  40. 
"  Con.   Faust,   xxvi.  7.  ^  Sertn.  xliii.  3.  *  Con.  Faust.-  xviil.   7. 

*  De  Mor.  Eccles.  vii. 


REASON  AND  AUTHORITY  35 

in  order  that  when  they  have  been  safely  placed  there, 
the  conflict  necessary  for  their  defence  may  be  main- 
tained with  the  most  strenuous  use  of  reason.  .  .  . 
Thus,  the  whole  supremacy  of  authority  and  light  of 
reason  for  regenerating  and  reforming  the  human  race 
has  been  made  to  reside  in  the  one  saving  Name,  and 
in  His  one  Church."  '  Yi\s\.rQ2it\sG. De titilitate credendi, 
which  was  written  to  help  a  friend  out  of  the  snares  of 
Manichaeism,  contains  a  clear  and  full  presentation  of 
this  whole  matter  of  the  precedence  of  faith  to  reason. 
"  If  they  say  that  we  are  not  even  to  believe  in  Christ 
unless  undoubted  reason  shall  be  given  us,  they  are  not 
Christians.  For  this  is  what  certain  pagans  say  against 
us,  foolishly  indeed,  yet  not  contrary  to  or  inconsistent 
with  themselves.  But  who  can  endure  that  those  pro- 
fess to  belong  to  Christ,  who  contend  that  they  are  to 
believe  nothing  unless  they  shall  bring  forward  to  fools 
most  open  reason  concerning  God  .''  But  we  see  that 
He  Himself  ,  .  .  willed  nothing  before,  or  more  strongly 
than,  that  He  should  be  believed  in ;  whereas  they  with 
whom  He  had  to  do  were  not  yet  qualified  to  receive 
the  secret  things  of  God."^  "It  is  authority  alone," 
he  says,  "  which  moves  fools  to  hasten  unto  wisdom. 
So  long  as  we  cannot  understand  pure  truth,  it  would 
be  indeed  wretched  to  be  deceived  by  authority,  but 
surely  more  wretched  not  to  be  moved  ;"  ^  —  a  passage 
which  has  been  much  abused,  and  made  to  teach  what 
it  does  not  teach.  Surely  all  believers  in  the  Church 
of  Christ  find  in  that  Divine  institution  the  meaning  of 

'  Ej^.  cxviii.  32,  33.  ^  De  util.  credend.  32.  ^  Id.  34. 


36  SAINT  A  UGUSTINE 

those  other  words,  "  We  must  not  give  up  all  hope  that 
.  .  .  God  Himself  hath  appointed  some  authority, 
whereon  resting,  as  on  a  sure  step,  we  may  be  lifted  up 
unto  God,"  '  And  because  S.  Augustine  accepted  au- 
thority, because  he  placed  faith  in  order  of  time  before 
reason,  there  is  no  good  ground  for  the  charge  of  certain 
recent  writers,  that  he  gave  up  his  reason,  and  remained 
ever  more  in  blind  and  abject  submission.  We  cannot 
think  that  he  regarded  the  authority  which  influenced 
him  to  accept  Christianity  and  the  Church  as  "  extrinsic 
and  separable  from  the  truth  of  [that]  Christianity."  ^ 
We  find  no  proof  that  he  considered  "  his  volition 
forced''  ^  Nor  need  we  admit  the  truth  of  such  milder 
language  as  that  in  "  this  earlier  theology  ...  he  suffi- 
ciently satisfied  his  reason  while  yet  making  the  sacrifice 
of  reason,"'*  with  its  implication, — which  the  one  who 
writes  these  words  fully  confirms, — that  in  his  later 
thinking  he  made  the  sacrifice  complete.  That  he  be- 
came more  dogmatic,  and  even  grew  in  some  ways  more 
narrow  and  fettered  in  his  thinking,  cannot  be  denied ; 
but,  with  all  this,  we  find  no  ground  for  saying  that  he 
more  and  more  surrendered  reason.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  believe  that,  in  harmony  with  certain  words  of 
his  which  we  have  quoted,  he  more  and  more  used  rea- 
son. He  might  hold,  in  such  use,  we  claim,  what  ideas 
he  pleased,  of  free-will,  or  predestination  ;  for  the  ques- 
tion of  submission,  which  his  opponents  make  so  much 
of,  has  not  to  do  with  the    almighty  and    inscrutable 

'  Id.         ^  Owen's  Evoiius^s  with  the  Skeptics,  Vol.  II.  p.  iSi.  ^  Id. 

p.  182.         ■♦  Allen's  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought,  p.  148. 


DID  HE   CONTINUE  A   MANICHAEAN?  ^y 

power  of  God,  but  with  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
and  of  forms  of  truth,  called  dogmas. 

It  has  been  quite  popular  in  modern  times,  to  assert 
or  to  hint  that  S.  Augustine  was  never  free  from  the 
influence  of  Manichaeism.  One  says,  "  In  spite  of  his 
war  against  the  Manichaeans,  he  remained  to  the  last 
unconsciously,  but  virtually  and  essentially  Manichaean 
in  his  theory  of  human  nature."  '  Another  writes,  "The 
real  strength  of  Augustine  was  acquired,  I  conceive, 
through  his  early  baptism  in  the  Styx  of  Manichaeism, 
^^nd  his  discovery  that  God  must  be  the  deliverer  from 
it.  T  do  not  say  that  he  ever  shook  off  the  distemper  ; 
it  came  back  again  frequently  in  his  battle  with  Pela- 
gius  "  etc.^  But,  admitting  the  unconscious  influence 
which  the  apparent  dualism  of  the  universe  may  have 
continued  to  present  to  his  mind,  we  cannot  see  the 
justice  of  any  such  charge.  No  one,  we  believe,  who 
understands  his  doctrine  of  original  sin,  can  truly  affirm 
that  by  it  human  nature  was  annihilated,  and  made 
"only  a  medium  for  the  manifestation  of  God  or  the 
devil."  3  Neander  is  more  fair-minded.  Misstatement 
is,  that  "  Augustine's  anthropological  views  have  been 
very  itujnstly  attributed  to  the  influence  of  Manichae- 
ism :  "  •* —  and  he  goes  on  to  distinguish  plainly  his  doc- 
trine of  human  corruption,  which  "grew  out  of  a  simple 
fact  of  the  moral  consciousness,"  from  the  dualism  of 
Mani's    philosophy  of   nature.     It  was    the    Pelagians, 

'  Hedge's  Atheism  in  Philosophy  and  other  Essays,  p.  iS8.  ^  Maurice  : 
—  in  his  Life  etc.  Vol.  II.  p.  109.  ^  Hedge,  ut  sup.  p.  190.  ''  Ch.  Hist. 
Vol.  II.  p.  625. 


38  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

chiefly,  who  used  to  taunt  S.  Augustine  with  being  a 
Manichaean  ;  and  the  reason  was  evident  :  perhaps  the 
same  reason  moves  those  who  cast  the  taunt  now. 

S.  Augustine  has  left  writings  of  much  importance 
in  connection  with  Donatism.  This  schism  had  been  in 
existence  in  Africa  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century.  Originating  in  false  notions  of  the  purity  of 
the  Church,  it  carried  these  notions  to  the  extreme 
of  bigotry  and  narrowness.  Early  calling  out  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  Empire,  by  refusing  to  yield  to  decisions 
given  in  answer  to  its  own  appeals,  meeting  henceforth 
with  but  little  of  conciliation,  provoked  by  continued 
imperial  repression,  growing  stronger  by  persecution, 
going  to  great  lengths  of  gloomy  zeal  and  even  cruel 
fanaticism,  the  sect  in  Augustine's  time  had  come  to  be 
one  of  large  proportions  and  corresponding  influence. 
The  Donatists  have  been  called  the  Puritans  of  Africa  ; 
and  the  history  of  the  two  presents  many  parallels,  in 
doctrine  and  practice.  S.  Augustine,  and  the  African 
Church  quite  generally,  through  his  influence,  made 
many  efforts  to  win  them  back  to  the  Church;  and  they 
succeeded  to  a  good  degree  in  certain  sections ;  but  the 
schism  was  too  deep-seated,  perhaps,  in  the  very  inten- 
sity of  the  African  nature  :  it  was  but  one  of  the  forms 
of  persistent  dissension  in  that  Church,  which  died  only 
with  the  extinction  of  the  Church  itself.  By  letters, 
and  treatises,  and  conferences,  S.  Augustine  strove  to 
bring  the  Donatists  to  their  allegiance.  While  firm  in 
his   oj^position   to  their  error,  he  manifests  a  spirit  of 


THE  DONA  TIST  SCHISM  39 

conciliation  and  courtesy  and  charity ;  he  entreats  his 
clergy  and  people  to  show  "untiring  gentleness." 
"Love  men,  while  you  destroy  errors,"  are  his  words  : 
—  "take  of  the  truth  without  pride;  strive  for  the 
truth  without  cruelty ;  pray  for  those  whom  you  refute 
and  convince."  " 

His  teaching  in  this  connection  relates  to  the  validity 
and  efficacy  of  the  sacraments,  especially  Baptism  ;  the 
purity  of  the  Church  ;  the  unity  of  the  Church  ;  the  sin 
of  schism:  — and  what  he  writes  upon  these  subjects 
is  of  permanent  value.  Nor  would  we  fail  to  consider, 
in  part  for  justification  or  explanation,  in  part  for 
censure,  his  oft-quoted  opinions  about  compulsion  and 
persecution  which  were  uttered  at  this  time. 

S.  Augustine  maintains  the  holiness  and  power  of 
the  Church's  sacraments  in  language  not  to  be  mis- 
understood. They  are  holy,  because  they  are  Christ's 
sacraments  ;  "  holy,  through  Him  to  Whom  they  be- 
long,""  and  to  Whom  they  unite  those  who  worthily 
receive  them.  Their  power  is  in  Christ ;  and  this 
power  is  for  good  or  ill,  according  to  the  worthiness  or 
unworthiness  of  the  receiver.  Speaking  now  of  Holy 
Baptism,  he  writes,  "  He  Himself  consecrates  His  sac- 
rament,—that  in  the  recipient,  either  before  he  is 
baptized,  or  when  he  is  baptized,  or  at  some  future  time 
when  he  turns  in  truth  to  God,  that  very  sacrament 
may  be  profitable  to  salvation,  which,  were  he  not  to 
be  converted,  would  be  powerful  to  his  destruction."  3 
"When  we  say  that  Christ  baptizes,  we  do  not  mean 

»  Con.  lit.  Petil.  i.  31.       ^  Con.  lit.  Petil.  ii.  88.       ^  jq^  Baptismo,  vi.  47. 


40  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

by  a  visible  ministry,  .  .  .  but  by  a  hidden  power  in 
the  Holy  Spirit.  .  .  .  Nor  has  He  now  ceased  to  baptize; 
but  He  still  does  it,  not  by  any  ministry  of  the  body, 
but  by  the  invisible  working  of  His  majesty."  '  It  is 
always  Christ  Who  is  here  the  origin,  root,  and  head.^ 
This  holiness  and  power,  moreover,  are  inherent,  and 
depend  not  upon  the  giver  or  the  receiver.  "  When 
baptism  is  given  in  the  words  of  the  gospel,  however 
great  the  perverseness  of  him  through  whom,  or  of  him 
to  whom  it  is  given,  the  sacrament  is  holy  in  itself,  on 
acconjit  of  Him  Whose  sacrament  it  is.  And  if  any  one, 
receiving  it  at  the  hands  of  a  misguided  man,  yet  does 
not  receive  the  perversity  of  the  minister,  but  only 
the  holiness  of  the  mystery,  being  closely  bound  to  the 
unity  of  the  Church  in  good  faith  and  hope  and  charity, 
he  receives  remission  of  his  sins, — not  by  the  words, 
.  .  .  but  by  the  sacraments  of  the  gospel  flowing  from 
a  heavenly  source.  But  if  the  recipient  himself  be  mis- 
guided, on  the  one  hand  what  is  given  is  of  no  avail  for 
the  salvation  of  the  misguided  man ;  and  yet,  on  the 
other  hand  that  which  is  received  remains  holy  in  the 
recipient,  and  is  not  renewed  to  him  if  he  be  brought 
to  the  right  way."  ^  Farther  still,  this  independent 
power  of  the  sacrament  pertains  to  it  even  when  ad- 
ministered outside  of  the  unity  of  the  Church.  Holy 
Baptism  belongs  to  Christ,  —  belongs  to  His  holy  Church  ; 
and  yet,  S.  Augustine  teaches,  it  is  found  with  those 
who  are  in  heresy  or  schism.  That  he  does  not  mean 
by  this  any  bodies  which  have  not  valid  orders,  is  plain 

'   Con.  lit.  Pctil.  iii.  59.  ==  Id.  i.  6.  ^  j)^  Baptismo,  iv.  iS. 


VALIDITY  AND  EFFICACY  OF  BAPTISM       41 

from  his  own  words  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  De 
Baptismo,  and  from  what  we  know  of  the  history  of 
these  bodies,  whose  bishops  possessed  an  actual  conse- 
cration, however  irregular  and  illegal,  whereby  "an 
Episcopal  succession  went  on  conferring  holy  orders."  ' 
His  own  words  are,  that  "he  who  is  ordained,  if  he 
depart  from  the  unity  of  the  Church,  does  not  lose  the 
sacrament  of  conferring  baptism,"  ^  which  he  possesses 
because  he  is  ordained.  Accordingly,  those  who  have 
received  this  baptism  in  separation,  if  they  return  to 
the  unity  of  the  Church,  are  not  to  be  re-baptized ;  for, 
he  says,  "we  act  rightly,  who  do  not  dare  to  repudiate 
God's  sacraments,  even  when  administered  in  schism."  ^ 
This  was  meant  to  oppose  the  error  of  the  Donatists, 
who,  falsely  claiming  that  the  Church  had  not  possessed 
pure  orders  since  the  time  of  their  separation,  would 
not  receive  any  who  came  to  them  from  the  Church, 
without  re-baptizing  them.  And  so  S.  Augustine  de- 
duces the  general  principle  of  the  validity  of  the  sacra- 
ment in  distinction  from  its  efficacy, — its  character  in 
distinction  from  its  grace.  He  says  that  the  reason 
why  S.  Cyprian  and  those  of  his  time  took  the  ground 
they  did  in  favor  of  re-baptizing,  was  "from  their  not 
distinguishing  the  sacrament  from  the  effect  or  use  of 
the  sacrament  ;  "  ■*  and  again,  —  "  if  you  say  that  the 
grace  of  baptism  is  identical  with  baptism,  then  it 
exists  among  heretics  ;  but  if  baptism  is  the  sacrament 
or  outward  sign  of  grace,  while  the  grace  itself  is  the 

'   Vid.  Ch.  Quart.  Rev.  Vol.  XIX.  p.  309.  ^  De  Baptismo,   i.  2. 

^  /(/.         '*  De  Baptismo.,  vi.  I. 


42  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

abolition  of  sins,  then  the  grace  of  baptism  does  not 
exist  with  heretics."  '  This  grace,  this  remission  of 
sins,  constituting  its  true  efficacy,  he  claims  can  be 
received  only  in  unity  with  the  Church.  "  Men  may 
be  baptized  in  communions  severed  from  the  Church, 
in  which  Christ's  baptism  is  given  and  received ;  but  it 
will  only  then  be  of  avail  for  the  remission  of  sins," 
when  they  are  "  reconciled  to  the  unity  of  the  Church."^ 
Of  the  case  of  two,  baptized  without  change  of  heart 
or  life,  one  without  and  the  other  within  the  Church, 
"  he  is  worse  who  is  baptized  without,  —  because  he  is 
ivitJioiit ;  for  the  evil  of  division  is  in  itself  far  from 
insignificant  or  trivial."  ^ 

But  let  none  imagine  that  S.  Augustine  did  not  go 
farther  than  any  outward  dividing  lines,  even  when 
they  bounded  the  divine  organization.  He  taught  the 
deep,  spiritual  unity  with  Christ  in  His  Church  :  and 
he  even  went  so  far  in  this,  that  he  is  by  many  inter- 
preted as  believing  in  the  theory  of  an  invisible  Church 
in  this  world.'*  He  says  in  one  place,  "  Nor  is  it  those 
only  that  do  not  belong  to  it  [the  Church],  who  are 
openly  guilty  of  the  manifest  sacrilege  of  schism,  but 
also  those,  who,  being  outwardly  joined  to  its  unity,  are 
yet  separated  by  a  life  of  sin  "  :  5  and  again,  —  "  It  does 
not  follow  that  whosoever  has  the  baptism  of  Christ  is 
also  certain  of  the  remission  of  sins,  if  he  has  this  only 
in  the  outward  sign,  and  is  not  converted  with  a  true 

'  Id.  vii.  37.  ^  /(/.  i.  18.  ^  Id.  iv.  23.  ■*  Vid.  his  explanation 
of  S.  John  iii.  5,  in  De  Baptisvio,  vi.  19;  of  S.  Matt.  vii.  24  etc»  in  44,  45; 
and  cf.  Con.  lit.  Pdil.  ii.  178,  iSo,  247,         ^  jy^  j^^^pt.  i.  14. 


SACRAMENTS  NOT  MAGICAL  43 

conversion  of  the  heart."  '  As  "the  man  who  is  bap- 
tized in  heresy  in  the  Name  of  the  Holy  Trinity  does 
not  become  the  temple  of  God  unless  he  abandons  his 
heresy;"  so  "the  covetous  man  who  has  been  baptized 
in  the  same  Name,  does  not  become  the  temple  of  God 
unless  he  abandons  his  covetousness  which  is  idola- 
try." ^  Holiness  of  life  he  deems  of  cardinal  impor- 
tance, and  dwells  upon  the  gradual  progressiveness  of 
evil  or  of  good  in  one's  life.  All  this  is  quite  enough 
to  show  that  he  did  not  make  of  Baptism  that  magic 
charm  which  some  have  taught  he  did.  He  goes  even 
farther.  Where  recourse  to  baptism  may  not  be  had 
for  want  of  time,  he  teaches  that  "faith  and  conversion 
of  heart"  may  supply  what  is  wanting  r^  though  he 
does  not  say  this  to  depreciate  the  sacrament,  —  as  no 
one  can  intentionally  do,  who  honors  God,  —  but  affirms, 
to  the  contrary,  that  no  "perfection  in  the  inner  man" 
should  induce  one  to  "despise  a  sacrament'  which  is 
applied  to  the  body  by  the  hands  of  the  minister,  but 
which  is  God's  own  means  for  working  spiritually  a 
mans  cojisecration  to  Himself ^  ^  That  this  means  may 
accomplish  its  end,  however,  it  must  be  used  as  God 
would  have  it,  not  in  separation  but  in  unity.  Though 
all  possess  true  baptism  who  have  received  it  anywhere 
in  the  Name  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  without  deceit,  and 
with  some  degree  of  faith,s  what  they  thus  have,  in 
separation,  is  only  the  charaeter  of  baptism,  not  its 
grace.     Augustine  insists  that  it  is  the  sacrament,  and 

'  Id.  vi.  62.        2  Id.  iv.  6.        3  /^_  iy_  29.        ■♦  Id.         5  jd.  vii.  102; 
Con.  lit.  Petil.  ii.  61. 


44  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

therefore  "  should  be  acknowledged  and  revered  ; "  '  but 
that  it  is  of  no  profit  for  remission  and  salvation  outside 
the  Church.  Accordingly,  he  is  quite  consistent  in 
bidding  all  who  are  without  to  return  to  unity.  And 
however  strict  his  doctrine  may  seem  in  its  relation  to 
all  such ;  of  however  little  benefit,  it  would  appear,  he 
must  have  regarded  their  baptism  —  stripped  of  grace  ; 
really  their  case  was  no  worse  in  his  mind  than  that  of 
those  baptized  in  the  Church  in  insincerity.  Either 
case  was  an  abuse,  a  perversion  of  a  divine  gift ;  an 
unlawful  use  of  a  lawful  privilege.  God's  grace  was 
held  in  abeyance,  he  taught;  just  as,  in  the  case  of 
insincerity,  is  commonly  taught  to-day. 

The  unity  for  which  he  pleaded  is  thus  shown  to  have 
been  spiritual  as  well  as  external.  It  zvas  external,  or- 
ganic, —  handed  down  in  succession  from  the  Apostles, 
among  whom  he  gave  the  primacy  to  S.  Peter,  while  he 
explicitly  claimed  that  his  was  not  the  only  Episcopal 
chair ;  there  must  be  unity  also  with  S.  James,  and  S. 
Cyprian;  —  with  Jerusalem  and  Carthage,  as  well  as 
with  Rome  ;  ^  —  this  organic  unity  any  who  were  striv- 
ing to  sunder,  were  doing  great  wrong,  and  bringing 
sorrow  to  every  loyal  heart.  "  We  behold  with  grief 
and  lamentation  peace  broken,  unity  rent  asunder,  bap- 
tism administered  a  second  time,  and  contempt  poured 
on  the  sacraments,  which  are  holy  even  when  ministered 
and  received  by  the  wicked."  ^  This  is  the  root  of 
the  matter  with  S.  Augustine,  —  that  the  sacraments, 

'  De  Baptismo,  iii.  13.  ^  Id.  ii.  2.  Con.  lit.  Pdil.  ii.  118..  ^  Ep. 
xliii.  24. 


UNITY  OF  THE    CHURCH  45 

the  unity,  the  authority,  are  Christ's.  The  unity  of  the 
Church  is  with  him  the  deepest  possible  spiritual  unity ; 
not  only  a  oneness  of  believer  with  believer,  but  the 
oneness  of  believers  with  Christ,  and  in  Christ.  Can 
any  question  the  scriptural  and  reasonable  grounds  for 
this  unity,  as  he  here  puts  it?  —  "No  one  attains  to 
salvation  and  eternal  life  who  has  not  Christ  for  his 
Head.  But  no  one  can  have  Christ  for  a  Head,  who 
does  not  belong  to  His  Body,  which  is  the  Church."  ' 
And  the  following  statement  guards  with  equal  care 
both  sides  of  the  truth  ;  —  "  The  entire  Christ  is  the 
Head  and  the  Body ;  the  Head  is  the  Only  begotten 
Son  of  God  ;  the  Body  is  the  Church.  He  who  agrees 
not  with  Scripture  in  the  doctrine  concerning  the  Head, 
although  he  may  stand  in  external  communion  with  the 
Church,  notwithstanding  belongs  not  to  her.  But  he 
who  holds  fast  to  all  that  Scripture  teaches  concerning 
the  Head,  and  yet  cleaves  not  to  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  belongs  not  to  her."  ^ 

A  few  words  more  must  be  said  at  this  point,  about  S. 
Augustine's  opinion  of  S.  Cyprian.  Although  Cyprian 
had  taken  the  strong  ground  which  has  been  referred 
to  upon  re-baptizing,  yet  he  had  shown  a  holy  spirit  of 
peace  and  charity,  in  not  claiming  that  his  opinions 
and  those  of  his  local  Church  at  Carthage  should  bind 
others,  and  in  not  separating  himself  from  their  com- 
munion. S.  Augustine  nobly  extols  this  peaceful  spirit, 
and  deems  it  of  higher  worth  than  knowledge  of  the 
mystery  of  the  sacrament,  zvithoiU  diavity.^     He  justly 

'  De  Uiiitate  Ecclesiae,  49.         ^  Id.  7.         ^  De  Baptistno,  i.  28. 


46  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

affirms,  also,  that  S.  Cyprian's  authority,  which  the 
Donatists  so  loudly  boasted  of  as  on  their  side,  was 
really  against  them,  and  in  favor  of  the  Church,  because 
of  his  very  tolerance  and  humility  and  determination  to 
keep  unity ;  while  they  were  proud  and  intolerant,  and 
vaunted  forth  the  very  extreme  of  the  schismatical 
temper;  although  they  had,  besides,  the  decree  of  a 
council '  against  them,  and  so  knew  and  transgressed 
a  law  of  the  Church  which  did  not  exist  in  Cyprian's 
day.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  —  and  the  point  has  been 
wrought  out  by  an  able  writer,^  —  how  strongly  anti- 
papal  is  the  conception  of  Church  authority  which  S. 
Augustine  here  presents.  To  a  discerning  mind  he 
hardly  appears,  in  this  respect,  as  the  great  fore-runner 
of  the  domination  of  the  papacy,  as  some  seem  to  regard 
him.  He  praises  S.  Cyprian,  because,  while  holding 
firmly  his  own  opinions,  and,  in  so  doing,  daring  to 
utterly  reject  the  authority  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  he 
would  not  make  the  point  a  condition  of  communion 
with  others,  as  there  was  no  universal  Church  authority 
in  the  matter.  "No  one  of  us,"  —  says  S.  Cyprian  com- 
mended by  S.  Augustine,  —  "sets  himself  up  as  a  bishop 
of  bishops,  or  by  tyrannical  terror  forces  his  colleagues 
to  a  necessity  of  obeying."  ^  How  radically  different 
from  all  this  have  been  the  temper  and  action  of  the 
Roman  Church,  is  too  manifest  to  call  for  comment. 

This  unity  of  the  Church,  so  important  for  building 
up  Christ's  kingdom  in  the  world,  S.  Augustine  main- 

'  Eighth  canun  of  Aries.         ^  In  the  Church  Quarterly  Review,  vol. 
x\  i.  jip.  2S-30.         ^  Dc  Biiptisino,  ii.  3. 


PURITY  OF  THE  CHURCH  47 

tains  may  be  kept  without  the  sacrifice  oi purity.  This 
is  not  saying  that  the  Church  is  wholly  pure  in  this 
world.  Nor  is  it  denying  that,  in  its  ideal,  the  Church 
is  holy  in  Christ,^ — that  great  truth  of  the  Creed;  but 
it  is  an  admission  of  the  actual  condition  of  things,  an 
attempt  to  explain  it,  and  to  better  it.  The  Church  on 
earth  includes  both  good  and  bad  ;  even  as  the  net  in 
the  parable  contains  both  good  and  bad  fishes,  or  the 
field  both  wheat  and  tares.  This  primary  conception 
of  her  condition  has  been  represented  as  one  which 
S.  Augustine  ingeniously  made  up  and  urged,  merely 
as  means  of  carrying  his  point  against  the  Donatists,  — 
as  a  lawyer  holding  a  brief  for  the  Church.^  But  such 
criticism  is  very  far-fetched,  brought  even  all  the  way 
from  the  one-sidedness  of  Donatist  feeling,  as  may  be 
read  in  the  records  of  that  time.^  The  application  of 
one  of  the  parables,  it  is  to  be  observed,  they  could 
not  deny  ;  that  of  the  other  ^.  Augustine  did  not  invent, 
bitt  rather  S.  Cyprian.''  In  the  Church,  then,  as  it  is 
on  earth,  S.  Augustine  teaches,  to  insist  on  finding 
absolute  purity,  or  even  that  there  can  be  no  commun- 
ion with  the  wicked,  would  be  to  destroy  the  Church. 
But,  as  it  has  continued  to  exist,  its  life  must  have 
been  maintained,  even  in  spite  of  its  impurity.  The  good 
in  it  are  not  to  sever  themselves,  and  thus  commit  the 
sin  of  schism.  "  The  good  and  faithful,  certain  of  their 
own  salvation,  may  continue  to  dwell  in  unity  among 

'  This  is  Maurice's  charge, — Life,  etc.  Vol.  II.  p.  167.  ^  Continuity 
of  Christian  Thought,  p.  152.  ^  Vid.  Neander,  tit  sup.  Vol.  II.  p.  242. 
■*  Vid.  Abp.  Trench  on  The  Parables,  p.  91,  n.  i. 


48  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

the  corrupt  whom  it  is  beyond  their  power  to  punish, 
seeking  to  root  out  the  sin  which  is  in  their  own 
heart."  '  We  need  not  be  partakers  of  other  men's 
sins,  by  being  in  communion  with  them.  What  S. 
Paul  forbids,  he  explains,^  is  consenting  to  these  sins. 
Wicked  men  may  be  in  the  Church,  partaking  materi- 
ally of  the  sacraments,  while  they  do  not  belong  to  the 
Body  of  Christ: 3  yes,  wicked  men  may  administer 
these  sacraments,  whose  holiness  cannot  even  thus  be 
polluted  ;  God  gives  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  ministry  of 
wicked  men  ;  but  though  through  them,  ncAfrovi  them  ; 
for  the  grace  itself  is  orAy  from  Himself,  or  through  His 
saints.^  But  this  state  of  things  is  "not  for  eternity, 
but  only  for  time;  nor  is  it  spiritual,  but  corporal."  .  .  . 
"  Let  the  separation  in  the  body  be  waited  for  till  the 
end  of  time,  faithfully,  patiently,  bravely."  ^  Let  no 
one,  he  urges,  give  way  to  individualism.  "  Let  no  one 
say,  'I  will  follow  such  an  one, — for  he  made  me  a 
Christian,  he  baptized  me  ;'  — let  no  one  that  preaches 
the  Name  of  Christ,  or  administers  the  sacrament  of 
Christ,  be  followed  in  opposition  to  the  unity  of  Christ.''^ 
The  Church's  ideal  purity  will  appear  hereafter.  "On 
earth  it  includes  both  bad  and  good.  On  earth  it  loses 
none  but  the  bad  ;  into  heaven  it  admits  none  but  the 
good."  7  Thus  does  he  present  the  great  truths  of 
the  unity  and  the  purity  of  the  Church.  With  its 
organic    structure    handed    down   from    the    Incarnate 

'  Con.  Epis.  Parmeniani,   iii.    12   et   seq.         ^  De  Baptismo,  vii.   9. 
^  Con.  lit.  Petit,  ii.  247.        *  De  Bapt.  v.  28,  29.        *  Con.  lit.  Petit,  iii.  4. 

<>  //.  iii.  6.         '  Ep.  .xliii.  27. 


APPROVAL    OF  COMPULSION  49 

God,  with  its  spiritual  power  its  deepest,  truest  test, 
with  Christ  alone  sinless  its  one  source  of  grace  and  Hfe, 

—  may  he  not  well  say,  "  You  are  safe,  who  have  God 
for  your  Father,  and  His  Church  for  your  mother"  ?  ^ 

S.  Augustine  has  been  much  censured  for  his  approval 
of  compulsion  in  bringing  men  into  the  Church.  He 
has  been  charged  with  favoring  persecution ;  and  has 
been  even  made  responsible  for  the  cruelties  of  the 
Inquisition.  We  reluctantly  admit  that  there  is  some 
truth  in  all  this ;  although  we  think  his  opponents  have 
carried  the  matter,  in  certain  directions,  much  too  far. 
As  regards  the  Donatists,  it  must  be  owned,  in  his 
favor,  that  his  treatment  of  them  for  a  long  period  was 
by  methods  of  persuasion  and  argument ;  that  he  neither 
advocated  nor  permitted  force  ;  that  he  urged  upon  his 
clergy  and  people  only  peace  and  conciliation,  —  seeking 
to  win  a  real  victory  over  their  narrowness  and  bigotry, 
and  to  gain  them  for  the  Church's  unity  rather  than  to 
transform  them  into  hypocritical  Catholics.^  They,  on 
the  other  hand,  became  increasingly  violent  and  cruel, 

—  their  abominable  conduct,  as  all  history  shows,  far 
exceeding  any  thing  charged  against  the  Church.  They 
Went  on,  in  their  outrages,  to  the  extent  of  most  hein- 
ous crimes.  It  was  t/ic  State  that  interfered,  partly  to 
carry  out  its  laws  against  crime,  partly  to  compel  them 
to  give  up  their  property,  to  abandon  their  worship,  and 
come  into  the  Church.  And  here,  as  in  all  such  cases 
since,  there  is  a  commingling  of  the  temporal  and  the 

'  Con.  lit.  Petit,  iii.  10.  Compare  the  mis-statement  of  this  passage  in 
Continuity  of  Christian  T/ioug/it,  p.  152.     -   ^  Ej>.  xciii.  17. 


50  SAINT  A  UGUSTINE 

spiritual,  in  interests,  rights,  and  duties.  The  question 
becomes,  —  how  far  S.  Augustine  called  for,  approved, 
sanctioned  this  compulsory  interference  of  the  State  ? 
He  positively  did  approve  it,  he  did  ask  for  it  :  and  it 
does  not  do  away  with  this  fact  to  know  that,  in  the 
kindness  of  his  own  nature,  he  counselled,  even  implored 
lenity  in  the  punishment  of  offenders.'  He  might  have 
been  justified  in  seeking  for  protection  from  the  state 
against  cruelty,  violence,  murder.  The  mad  rage  of 
fanaticism  was  aroused  ;  and  he  could  see  no  other  way 
of  checking  it  than  this.  But  he  went  on  to  make  the 
great  mistake  of  connecting  questions  of  religious  belief 
and  worship  with  those  of  moral  conduct,  and  to  think 
compulsion  right,  yes,  a  good  and  wholesome  thing,  in 
reference  to  one  as  well  as  the  other.  Interpreting 
literally  the  language  of  the  parable,  "  compel  them  to 
come  in,"  —  using  the  example  of  S.  Paul,  compelled  to 
believe  at  his  conversion,  —  "Why,"  he  asked,  "should 
not  the  Church  compel  her  lost  sons  to  return  }  "  ^  At 
first  he  would  not  call  it  persecution,  which  he  advo- 
cated, but  "punishment,"  or  "merciful  correction;"  but 
soon  it  was  "truth  persecuting  falsehood,"  or  "treach- 
ery chastised  with  the  scourge  of  tribulation  : "  ^  later, 
it  became  the  "  righteous  persecution  which  the  Church 
of  Christ  inflicts  upon  the  impious,  in  the  spirit  of  love, 
that  she  may  correct,  and  recall  from  error."  •♦  He 
made  much  reference  to  the  wholesome  effect  of  this 
persecution,  —  how  that  so  many  of  the  reformed  Dona- 

'  Ep.  cxxxiii.  ad  ATarcellitium.        *  Ep.  clxxxv.  22,  23.         ^  Con.  lit. 
Petil.  ii.  passim.        *  Ep.  clxxxv.  11. 


DEFENCE   OF  PERSECUTION  5  I 

tists  were  thankful  that  the  imperial  laws  had  been 
brought  to  bear  against  them  and  they  had  been  res- 
cued, even  against  their  will'  He  claims  that  kings 
are  to  serve  the  Lord,  as  kings,  "  by  preventing  and 
chastising  with  religious  severity  all  acts  done  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  commandments  of  the  Lord.^  Sins  against 
God  are  as  amenable  to  human  law  as  sins  against  men  : 
—  "  Why,"  he  openly  asks,  "  when  free-will  is  given  by 
God  to  man,  should  adulteries  be  punished  by  the  laws, 
and  sacrilege  allowed  ?  "  ^  The  whole  drift  of  this  lan- 
guage is  in  one  direction.  And  even  when  we  make 
all  fair  allowance  for  sincerity  of  motive,  and  take  into 
account  his  own  mildness  and  gentleness  of  spirit,  we 
can  find  little  in  his  writings  upon  this  subject  which 
is  not  worthy  of  condemnation ;  and  with  sad  surprise 
we  wonder  if  he  ever  imagined  the  extent  to  which  his 
opinions  might  be  used  and  abused. 

The  Pelagian  heresy  called  forth  perhaps  the  most 
distinctive  of  S.  Augustine's  doctrinal  teaching.  The 
truths  imperilled  he  considered  were  those  of  prime 
importance,  the  errors  subtle  and  dangerous.  The 
controversy  was  severe  and  long  continued ;  and  the 
fact  that  here,  more  than  anywhere  else  in  his  writings, 
Augustine  appears  as  tJie  Co7itroversialist,  largely  ac- 
counts for  both  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of  his 
statements. 

Pelagianism,  with  a  great  deal  that  was  true,  in  its 
origin  and  development,  was  mainly  false  in  both.  Its 
•  Id.  7, 13.  *  Id.  19.  3  Id.  20. 


52  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

origin  was  in  an  exaggerated  notion  of  human  power  and 
freedom,  the  development  of  which  would  logically  do 
away  with  Christianity.  It  denied  any  inherited  fault 
of  our  nature,  and  made  sin  only  actual.  It  proclaimed 
the  sufficiency  of  man  for  obeying  God's  command- 
ments, and  denied  the  necessity  of  direct  supernatural 
grace.  Gaining  popular  esteem  by  its  appeal  to  the 
innate  consciousness  of  freedom  and  responsibility,  and 
by  its  successful  use  of  that  appeal  in  arousing  indolent 
souls  to  effort  in  the  ordinary  duties  of  life ;  after  all  it 
could  not  be  truly  practical,  but,  "going  upon  ideas 
without  considering  facts,"  it  made  too  little  of  actual 
human  frailty  and  the  power  of  evil  habit,  and  so  had  no 
ability  to  meet  those  deeper  needs  which  really  existed, 
and  for  which  Christianity  would  provide  a  remedy. 

S.  Augustine,  whose  overpowering  sense  of  the  sin- 
fulness of  man  was  but  the  echo  of  his  own  experience 
to  the  affirmations  of  Scripture ;  to  whom,  in  idea, 
God's  power  was  infinite,  man's  strength  nothing,  and 
so,  God's  grace  indispensable  to  enable  human  weak- 
ness,—  was  alarmed  from  the  first  at  the  existence  in 
the  Christian  Church  of  doctrines  which  he  considered 
struck  at  the  foundation  of  Christianity.  If  nature 
since  the  Fall  had  no  infection,  if  we  were  born  as 
pure  and  as  free  to  obey  God  as  was  Adam  before  his 
disobedience,  if  man  could  and  did  really  make  the  first 
beginning  in  turning  to  God,  if  the  will  were  thus  pow- 
erful, if  there  were  no  absolute  need  of  internal  Divine 
assistance,  if  the  life  could  thus  begin  and  continue 
acceptable,  —  %vJurc    was    Christianity  ?    was  "  it    not 


TRUTH  AND  ERROR  OF  FELAGIANISM        53 

practically  useless  ?  But  conscience,  experience,  obser- 
vation contradicted  this,  and  confirmed  the  testimony 
of  God's  Word, 

To  enter  upon  any  detailed  history  of  the  Pelagian 
controversy  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  essay. 
It  affected  all  Christendom  :  through  its  chief  leaders, 
Augustine  on  the  one  side,  Pelagius,  Celestius,  and 
Julian  on  the  other,  its  doctrines,  in  their  more  or  less 
extended  application,  came  before  many  Bishops  and 
Councils,  and  were  approved  or  disapproved ;  the  con- 
clusion being  that  the  Pelagian  opinions  were  con- 
demned by  the  Church  in  both  East  and  West.'  Of 
the  issues  of  the  controversy,  and  the  consequent  value 
of  the  Church's  decision,  we  may  form  an  opinion,  if 
we  will  but  consider,  as  Canon  Bright  says,  "what 
effect  e.g.  the  denial  of  real  grace  would  have  on  the 
principle  of  sacraments ;  or  what  would  be  left  of  the 
practical  religion  of  our  Prayer-Book,  after  it  had  been 
revised  in  the  interests  of  Pelagianism."  ^ 

The  teachings  of  S.  Augustine  in  this  connection 
have  been  loudly  praised  and  loudly  blamed.  We  have 
for  them,  as  a  whole,  neither  praise  nor  blame  unquali- 
fied. A  distinction  may  be  made  among  them.  Some 
of  these  doctrines  were  not  the  novelties  which  they 
are  mistakenly  affirmed  to  have  been  ;  others,  truly, 
were  but  the  developments  of  his  own  thought  from 
doctrines  which  had  the  authority  of  tradition.^  More- 
over, as  a  guide,  in  our  estimate  of  them  all,  wc  may 

'  Carthage,  a.d.  41S:  Third  General  Council,  at  Ephesus,  a.d.  431. 
^  Anti-Pelagiaii  Treatises,  etc.  Introd.  p.  xiv.         ^  Id.  p.  li. 


54  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

readily  observe  that  they  tend  to  become  increasingly 
intense,  7inconditioned,  arbitrary,  one-sided.  And  herein 
they  illustrate  a  principle;  for  even,  if  we  do  not,  as 
many  would  not,  find  mental  difficulty  in  the  theory  of 
absolute  predestination,  or  of  irresistible  grace,  there  is 
still  this  to  be  said,  that,  in  the  orderings  of  Divine 
providence,  in  the  working  of  the  will  of  God  in  the 
hearts  of  men,  tJiei-e  is  another  side  of  the  truth.  It  is 
this  other  side  of  the  truth,  which,  in  the  intensity  of 
some  of  his  doctrinal  statements  relating  to  Pelagian- 
ism,  he  loses  ;  and  whether  it  arise  from  the  pressure 
of  controversy,  or  from  continual  meditation  upon  the 
one  aspect  of  truth  which  seems  to  him  most  necessary, 
he  thereby  does  present  doctrine  which  is  defective, 
imperfect,  individualized,  rather  than  whole,  catholic, 
comprehensive.  And  it  is  just  those  portions  of  his 
doctrine  which  have  been  taken  up  and  elaborated, 
pushed  to  farthest  extremes,  and  perhaps  given  a 
really  forced  interpretation,  by  founders  of  sects  ; 
while  the  body  of  his  teaching  is  the  heritage  and  the 
blessing  of  the  entire  Church. 

S,  Augustine  met  the  self-sufificiency  of  Pelagianism, 
in  part,  by  his  teaching  concerning  oj-iginal  sin.  This 
doctrine  the  Pelagians  denied  ;  they  held  that  our  only 
connection  with  Adam's  sin  was  in  the  imitation  of  it, 
and  called  Augustine's  doctrine  a  novelty.  But,  while 
the  precise  expression  may  have  originated  with  him,' 
the  doctrine  itself,  he  rightly  claims,  he  did  not  devise, 
but    it    belonged    to   the    Catholic   faith    from    ancient 

'  Ad  Simplicianutn,  i.  i. 


ORIGINAL  SIN  55 

times '  and  had  been  always  guarded  as  part  of  that 
faith  ;^  and  in  more  than  one.  of  his  treatises  ^  he  cites 
many  of  the  Fathers  of  East  and  West  as  maintainers 
of  it.  The  principal  Scriptural  authority  to  which  he 
appeals  is  that  of  Rom.  v.  12;  where,  in  spite  of  the 
generally  considered  mistranslation  of  £</>'  <S,  "in  whom," 
—  the  thought  oi  his  doctrine,  ("omnes  ille  unus  homo 
fuerunt "  ^)  is  plainly  contained  in  the  Trai/res  Tj/xaprov. 
He  had  what  he  conceived  to  be  an  unanswerable  prac- 
tical argument  in  the  universal  custom  of  Infant  Bap- 
tism in  the  Church  :  s  and  it  is  an  insinuation  which 
needs  proof,  that  only  from  Augustine's  time  and  be- 
cause of  his  teaching  in  reference  to  original  sin.  Infant 
Baptism  began  to  be  the  general  practice.^  The  bap- 
tism of  infants,  he  says,  cannot  be  for  remission  of 
actual  sins,  —  and  yet,  it  is  for  remission  of  sin,  — 
therefore  it  can  be  only  for  that  of  original  sin.  "  In- 
asmuch as  infants  are  not  held  bound  by  any  sins  of 
their  actual  life,  it  is  the  guilt  of  original  sin  which  is 
healed  in  them  by  the  grace  of  Him  Who  saves  them 
by  the  laver  of  regeneration."  ^  This  original  sin,  he 
teaches,  subjects  all  the  unbaptized  to  condemnation  ; 
and  accordingly  they  who  so  die  are  not  believed  to  be 
saved.  The  most  forbidding  part  of  S.  Augustine's 
teaching  is  that  concerning  the  eternal  punishment  of 
the  heathen,  who  had  no  opportunity,  and  of  infants 
dying  unbaptized. 

'  De    mtpt.   et    conatpisc.    ii.    25.  ^  De   peccat.    meritis,    iii.    14. 

^  Especially  in  the   Con.  Julianum.  *  De  nupt.  etc.  ii.    15.         ■''  De 

pecc.  mer.  etc.  i.  39.  Cf.  De  Bapt.  parvid.  i.  10.  ^  Continuity  of  Chris- 
tian Thought,  p.  160.         '  De  pecc.  mer.  etc.  i.  24. 


56  SAIA'T  AUGUSTINE 

But  what,  more  definitely,  does  he  make  this  original 
sin  to  be  ?  It  is  that  taint,  or  defect,  or  flaw '  which 
our  nature  inherits  from  Adam.  "  We  are  in  such  a 
condition,  because,  by  reason  of  his  preceding  sin,  we 
are  born  in  sinful  flesh."  ^  He,  the  head  of  the  race, 
having  disobeyed,  and  thereby  incurred  guilt,  has,  by 
the  very  law  of  transmission,  made  his  descendants 
sharers  in  that  guilt.^  And  it  is  even  more  than  a  law 
of  transmission  which  is  in  exercise  ;  for  Adam  was  the 
divinely  appointed  head  of  the  race,  in  whom  the  race 
was  on  trial.  As  he  says  elsewhere,  —  "  We  all  were 
in  that  one  man,  for  we  all  zvcrc  that  one  man."*  This 
original  sin  need  not  mean  a  literal  imputation  of 
Adam's  sins  to  us,  although  some  have  so  interpreted 
Augustine's  teaching  ;  but  a  condition  which,  by  in- 
heritance, brings  to  us  the  consequences  of  his  act 
from  whom  we  inherit.  "Through  the  sin  of  the 
first  man,  which  issued  from  his  free-will,  our  nature 
became  vitiated  and  ruined ;  and  nothing  ever  came 
to  its  succor  but  God's  grace  alone,  through  Him  Who 
is  the  Mediator,"  etc.5  Again,  **  Having  been  born 
after  Adam  in  the   flesh,  they  have   contracted,  from 

'  De  nupt.  etc.  ii.  49.         ^  De  pecc.  merit,  i.  68. 

3  In  considering  this  law  of  descent  by  natural  generation,  Augustine 
enters  upon  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  soul,  whether  according  to 
h-aducianism  transmitted  from  parents  to  children,  or  according  to  crc- 
atianism  by  individual  creation  at  each  birth.  He  cannot  decide  in  favor 
of  either,  and  thinks  the  question  not  important,  but  inclines  towards  the 
latter,  —  one  of  many  instances  showing  his  candor,  as  the  other  theory 
would  more  manifestly  agree  with  his  doctrine. 

*  De  Civ.  Dei,  xiii.  14.        *  De  Grat.  Chr.  i.  55. 


SOURCE  AND  EXTENT  OF  THE  EVIL  57 

their  very  birth,  the  contagion  of  the  primeval  death."  ' 
These  passages  are  specimens  of  very  many  Mrhich 
exist  in  his  works,  and  perhaps  they  show  sufficiently 
what  he  believed  original  sin  to  be. 

Certain  inquiries  suggest  themselves.  As  to  the 
source  of  this  evil  which  we  necessarily  inherit,  —  is 
God  made  the  Author  of  it .''  S.  Augustine  emphati- 
cally says,  No.  Human  nature,  as  created  in  Adam, 
was  good.  Our  nature,  as  such,  has  no  evil  in  it. 
Adam  possessed,  in  that  nature,  a  perfect  righteous- 
ness, the  gift  of  supernatural  grace,  and  this  by 
supernatural  grace  he  might  have  retained.^  When 
he  sinned,  it  was  by  his  own  free-will,  and  accordingly 
of  this  sin  Grd  must  not  be  made  the  author.  Evil 
thus  arose  ont  of  good,  it  must  be  owned  ;  as  originally 
it  did  when  a  holy  angel  became  the  devil ;  but  God 
was  not  its  author.  It  sprang  not  from  the  supreme 
good  which  is  His  nature,  but  from  that  good  which 
He  created  out  of  nothing. ^  Nor  did  Augustine  there- 
by take  refuge  in  Manichaeism  ;  for  the  devil  was  not 
an  original  principle  of  evil,  but  was  at  first  a  good 
nature,  made  by  the  one  good  God.  Another  inquiry 
arises,  as  to  the  extent  of  this  evil  of  original  sin.  He 
says  our  nature  became  "  vitiated  and  ruined ; "  but, 
strong  as  this  language  is,  or  any  other  that  can  be 
quoted  from  him  on  this  topic,  we  cannot  discover  it  to 
be  his  teaching  that  thereby  "the  traces  of  the  divine 
image  in  human  nature  were  destroyed  ; "  or  that  "  hu- 

'  De  pecc.  merit,  iii.  10.  ^  De  corrept.  et  grat.  31.  ^  De  nupt.  etc. 
ii.  48,  50. 


58  SA  INT  A  UG  US  TINE 

manity  is  absolutely  separated  from  God."  '  Let  us 
read  what  he  says: — "God's  image  has  not  been  so 
completely  erased  in  the  soul  of  man  by  the  stain  of 
earthly  affections,  as  to  have  left  remaining  there  no 
merest  lineaments  of  it."  .  .  .  "What  was  impressed 
on  their  hearts  when  they  were  created  in  the  image 
of  God,  has  not  been  ivholly  blotted  out."''  Again, 
"  the  blessing "  [of  creation]  —  {creation  then  is  a 
blessing)  —  "has  not  been  eliminated  out  of  our  ex- 
cellent nature  by  a  fault  which  puts  us  under  condem- 
nation. .  .  .  Whatever  sins  men  commit,"  {and  cer- 
tainly actual  sins  are  worse  than  original  sin)  —  "  these 
defects  of  character  do  not  eliminate  his  manhood  from 
man ;  nay,  God's  good  workmanship  continues  still, 
however  evil  be  the  deeds  of  the  impious."  ^  In  the 
De  Trinitate,  (and  in  one  of  the  closing  books,  which 
accordingly  must  have  been  written  at  the  very  time 
when  he  was  in  the  heat  of  the  Pelagian  controversy,) 
he  has  very  explicit  words  about  the  image  of  God 
in  man,  claiming  that  "  this  image,  however  worn  out 
and  defaced,  still  remains;"  moreover,  this  "weak  and 
erring  mind,  by  this  image  of  God  within  itself  has 
such  power  as  to  be  able  to  cleave  to  Him  Whose 
image  it  is,  to  understand  and  behold  God;"-*  —  words 
by  which  he  did  not  intend  to  deny  the  need  of 
God's  grace,  but  which  show  how  highly  he  re- 
garded human  freedom  under  Divine  grace,  even  in 
the  initiative  act  of  turning  to  God.     Furthermore,  if 

»  Continuity   of  Christian    Thought,    p.  157.  *  De   Sp.  et  lit.  48. 

^  De pecc.  orig.  ii.  46.         ■*  De  Trin.  xiv.  6,  11,  20. 


GOD'S  IMAGE  NOT  DESTROYED  59 

in  his  teaching  of  original  sin,  "  humanity  is  absolutely 
separated  from  God,"  where  could  he  have  thought 
there  would  be  any  point  of  contact  or  recovery  for  our 
race,  any  more  than  for  the  fallen  angels  ?  And  so  the 
one  who  makes  this  statement  can  justify  it  only  by  the 
further  assertion  that  Augustine  is  so  deeply  interested 
in  establishing  his  position  of  the  condemnation  of  the 
race,  that  "  the  redemption  of  the  world  by  Christ  in- 
evitably assumes  a  subordinate  place,  and  is  practically 
denied  ;  "  '  —  that  he  is  guilty  of  such  "depreciation  of 
Christ,  that  deism  is  the  tacit  assumption  of  the  Church 
on  which  its  institutions  rest."  ^  S.  Augustine  denying 
the  redemption  of  Christ !  S.  Augustine  a  deist !  Such 
an  attack  needs  no  defence  but  to  ask  all  to  read  his 
writings  with  unprejudiced  mind. 

In  the  depth  of  the  ruin  which  he  believed  the  sin 
of  Adam  had  brought  upon  the  race,  he  never  fails  to 
recognize  the  mercy  of  God,  following  after  man  with 
every  inducement  of  fear  and  of  love,  to  bid  him  return 
to  Him  and  be  saved.  But  man  has  no  power  of  him- 
self to  return.  Not  only  has  he  no  merit,  whereby  he 
can  please  God  in  doing  good  works,  but  he  cannot 
begin  to  believe  and  obey,  of  himself.  He  must  have 
this  internal,  supernatural  power  imparted,  to  inspire, 
to  urge,  to  aid.  It  must  "prevent  and  follow"  him;  it 
must  be  constantly  with  him.  And  this  power  is 
Grace,  in  the  Augustinian  teaching.  Shall  any  one 
presume  to  say,  that  there  is  here  a  "degradation  of 
Christian  theology .!*"  —  that  "Christ  .  .  .  gives  way,  in 

^  Contiiitiity  0/  Christian  Thought,  p.  157.  ^  Id.  p.  171. 


6o  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

the  system  of  Augustine,  to  an  impersonal  thing  or  sub- 
stance which  is  known  as  grace  ?  "  '  Where,  then,  we 
ask,  is  the  presence  of  Christ  in  the  inspired  teaching 
of  S.  Paul?  Is  "grace"  there  only  "an  impersonal 
thing  or  substance,"  whose  idea  is  to  displace  Christ 
in  the  heart  ?  Grace  is,  indeed,  a  theological  term  ; 
but  its  meaning  reaches  much  farther  than  to  the  dry 
shell  of  dogma  which  sceptics  and  semi-sceptics  talk 
about.  It  has  been  well  defined,  as  "  a  force  in  the 
spiritual  order,  —  not  simply  God's  unmerited  kindness 
in  the  abstract,  but  such  kindness  in  action,  as  a  move- 
ment of  His  Spirit  within  the  soul,  resulting  from  the 
Incarnation,  and  imparting  to  the  will  and  the  affections 
a  new  capacity  of  obedience  and  love."  ^  And  this  it 
is  in  S.  Augustine's  teaching,  herein  carefully  agreeing 
with  Scripture  and  tradition. 

The  Pelagians  were  willing  to  call  by  that  term  the 
powers  of  nature  originally  conferred  on  man,  and  which, 
they  taught,  he  had  still  in  exercise ;  or  they  might 
make  it  another  expression  for  the  moral  law,  or  the 
gift  of  forgiveness,  or  the  following  of  Christ's  ex- 
ample. And  so  they  had  a  great  deal  of  use,  more  or 
less  specious,  of  the  word  grace.  But  they  never  came 
to  own  it  as  that  internal.  Divine  power,  which  was 
necessary  for  holiness.  Accordingly  they  and  S.  Augus- 
tine were  not  speaking  of  the  same  thing  at  all ;  and 
he  is  careful  to  say  so  repeatedly.  He  means  by  it  that 
merciful  power  of  God  acting  to  restore  man's  fallen 
nature.     Grace    does    not    really  disparage    nature,  he 

*  Continuity  etc.  p.  162.       ^  Canon  Bright's  Introduction,  nt  sup.  p.  x. 


HIS  DOCTRINE  OF  GRACE  6 1 

says:  —  it  "  liberates  and  controls  nature;"'  it  is  not 
according  to  merit,  or  it  would  not  be  grace  ;  it  is  free, 
or  it  would  not  be  grace  ;  it  is  set  in  contrast  to  the  law, 
yet  it  enables  to  keep  the  law  ;  grace  works  with  us  as 
well  as  in  us ;  with    our  will,  —  establishing  free-will  ; 
all  grace  is  in  Christ,  by  Whom  it  is  given  in  many  ways, 
emphatically  in  the  Holy  Sacraments  ;  grace  gradually 
accomplishes  perfection  in  holiness,  and  brings  us  to 
the  fruition  of  everlasting  life.     Our  grace,  he  teaches, 
is  an  even  greater  gift  than  that  bestowed  upon  Adam ; 
for  ours  is  efficacious, — yes,  as  he  may  be  interpreted, 
even  irresistible  and  indefectible.     And  now,  if  we  add 
the  relation  of  predestination  and  perseverance,  in  his 
system  of  doctrine,  to  this  grace,  —  that  predestination 
prepares  for  grace  ;  and  that  this  grace,  by  God's  right- 
eous and  secret  counsels,  is  not  given  to  all  alike,  in 
fact  is  given  to  one  and  not  given  to  another,  for  some 
never  begin,  and  some  do  not  finish  the  Christian  course, 
—  perhaps  we  shall  have  traced  a  tolerably  clear  out- 
line of  the  Augustinian  teaching  on  this  great  subject. 
Even  in  its  outline  it  indicates  bright  lights  and  deep 
shadows;   a  mixture   of   Catholic  truth  and  individual 
error;    the  error  being  in  going  so  far  with   one  side 
of  truth  as  not  to  make  known  the  other  side  ;  in  being 
driven  on  by  logic  ;  in  ignoring  comprehensiveness,  and 
being  bound  to  a  system  ;  in  forgetting  authority,  and 
making  an  excessive  use  of  human  reason.     A  few  quota- 
tions may  best  illustrate  all  this.  —  "  This  grace  of  Christ 
...  is  not  bestowed  for  any  merits,  but  is  given //rr/y, 

'  Retract,  ii.  43. 


62  SAINT  AUCUSTIAE 

on  account  of  which  it  is  also  called ^nzrr. "  '  "The  law 
was  given  in  order  that  grace  might  be  sought ;  grace 
was  given  in  order  that  the  law  might  be  fulfilled."  * 
"  Does  not  the  whole  scope  amount  to  this,  that  the 
letter  which  forbids  sin  fails  to  give  man  life,  but  rather 
killeth  by  increasing  concupiscence  and  aggravating  our 
sinfulness  by  transgression,  unless  indeed  grace  liberates 
us  by  the  law  of  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  when 
His  love  is  '  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  which  is  given  to  us  '  ?  "  3  «<  It  is  grace  which 
helps  any  man  to  be  a  doer  of  the  law  ;  and  without  this 
grace,  he  who  places  himself  under  the  law  will  be  a 
hearer  of  the  law  and  nothing  else."  ^  "God  is  said  to 
be  our  Helper ;  but  nobody  can  be  helped  who  does  not 
make  some  effort  of  his  own  accord.  For  God  does  not 
work  our  salvation  in  us  as  if  we  were  mere  stones, 
without  sensibility,  or  creatures  in  whose  nature  He 
had  placed  neither  reason  nor  will.  Why,  however.  He 
helps  one  man,  but  not  another,  or  why  one  man  so 
much,  and  another  not  to  the  same  extent,  or  why  one 
man  in  one  way,  and  another  in  another  way,  —  are 
points  which  He  reserves  to  Himself  according  to  the 
method  of  His  own  most  secret  judgment,  and  to  the 
excellency  of  His  power."  5  "No  man  is  assisted  [by 
God],  unless  he  also  himself  does  something  ;  assisted, 
however,  he  is,  if  he  prays,  if  he  believes,  if  he  is 
'called  according  to  God'.s  purpose.'"  .  ,  .  "This  God's 
grace  does,  in  cooperation  with  ourselves,  through  Jesus 

'  De  7iat.  et  grat.  4.         =  De  Sf<.  el  lit.  34.         ^  jj  3^         4  d^.  ^yat. 
ct  lib.  arbit.  24.         ^  De pccc.  merit,  ii.  6. 


GRACE    WORKING    WITH   THE    WILL  6^ 

Christ  our  Lord,  as  well  by  commandments,  sacraments, 
examples,  as  by  His  Holy  Spirit  also,  through  Whom 
there  is  latently  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  that  love  which 
maketh  intercession  for  us  with  groanings  that  cannot 
be  uttered,  until  health  and  salvation  be  perfected  in  us, 
and  God  be  manifested  to  us  as  He  will  be  seen  in  His 
eternal  truth."  '  "  He  begins  His  influence  by  working 
in  Its  that  we  may  have  the  will,  and  completes  it  by 
working  witJi  us  when  we  have  the  will "  ^  (the  lan- 
guage of  our  Tenth  Article).  "  Every  man's  righteous- 
ness must  be  attributed  to  the  operation  of  God,  al- 
though not  taking  place  without  the  cooperation  of 
man's  will."  ^  "  Our  merits  have  their  crown  of  reward  ; 
but  our  merits  are  the  gift  of  God  ;  "  ^  —  the  same  sen- 
timent as  is  found  in  the  well  known  prayer  of  the  Con- 
fessions,  "  Give  what  Thou  commandest,  and  command 
what  Thou  wilt "  (x.  40),  or  in  the  acknowledgment, 
"My  good  deeds  are  Thy  institutions  and  Thy  gifts  " 
(x.  5),  or  in  the  Epistle  to  Sextus,  "  When  God  crowns 
our  merits,  He  only  crowns  His  own  gifts."  ^  "Do  we 
by  grace  make  void  man's  freedom  of  will?  God  for- 
bid !  We  rather  establish  that  faculty.  For  as  the  law 
is  not  weakened  or  cancelled  by  faith,  neither  is  free- 
will by  grace."  ^  "If  there  is  no  grace  of  God,  how 
does  He  save  the  world  ?  and  if  there  is  no  free-will, 
how  does  He  judge  the  world  }  "  ">  "  By  faith  comes  the 
acquisition  of   grace  to  resist  sin  ;  by  grace   the    soul 

'  De  pe7-fec.justit.  43.  ^  De  Grat.  et  lib.  arbit.  33.  ^  £)g  spir.  et 
lit.-].  *•  De  gest.  Pelag.  35.  ^  £p^  cxciv.  19.  ^  De  Spir.  et  lit.  52. 
'  Ep.  ccxiv.  2. 


64  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

procures  healing  from  the  disease  of  sin  ;  by  the  health 
of  the  soul  liberty  is  given  to  the  will ;  from  this  free- 
dom of  the  will  arises  the  love  of  righteousness ;  and 
from  the  love  of  righteousness  proceeds  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  law.  .  .  .  How  is  it,  then,  that  miserable 
men  dare  to  be  proud,  either  of  their  free-will,  before 
they  have  liberty,  or  of  their  own  strength,  if  they  have 
been  liberated  ?  "  '  This  grace  is  all  i7i  Christ,  and  from 
Him.  This  Mediator,  "even  previous  to  His  coming  in 
the  flesh,  all  along  delivered  the  ancient  members  of  His 
Body  by  their  faith  in  His  incarnation  ;  "  ^  and  "  with- 
out faith  in  His  incarnation,  and  death,  and  resurrection, 
the  Christian  verity  unhesitatingly  declares  that  the 
ancient  saints  could  not  possibly  have  been  cleansed 
from  sin,  so  as  to  have  become  holy,  and  justified  by  the 
grace  of  God."^  "If  God  willed  not  that  man  should 
be  without  sin.  He  would  not  have  sent  His  Son,  with- 
out sin,  to  heal  men  of  their  sins."-*  "There  is  no  re- 
conciliation except  by  the  remission  of  sins,  through  the 
grace  alone  of  the  most  merciful  Saviour,  —  through  the 
only  sacrifice  of  the  most  veritable  Priest."  s  "In  Him 
Who  is  our  Head  [is]  the  very  fountain  of  grace,  whence, 
according  to  the  measure  of  every  man,  He  diffuses 
Himself  through  all  His  members.  It  is  by  that  grace 
that  every  man  from  the  beginning  of  his  faith  becomes 
a  Christian,  by  which  grace  that  one  Man  from  His  be- 
ginning became  Christ ;  the  former  also  is  born  again 
by  the  same  Spirit  of    which    the   latter  was    born."^ 

'  Dc  Spir.  ct  lit.  52.  ^  De  fecc.  orig.  37.  ^  De  pecc.   orig.  28. 

*  Dc  perfcc.juslit.  7.         '  De  pecc.  vierit.  i.  56.        *  De prciedest.sanct.  13. 


GRACE  IN  THE  SACRAMENTS  65 

"  The  very  sacraments  of  the  holy  Church  show  plainly 
enough  that  infants  .  .  ,  are  delivered  from  the  bondage 
of  the  devil  through  the  grace  of  Christ."  '  "Through 
the  grace  of  that  holy  laver  which  we  have  put  within 
our  reach,  advances  are  even  now  made  by  us  towards 
the  blessed  consummation  of  perfection."  ^  Although 
absolute  perfection  (he  believed)  might  be,  in  theory, 
possible, — and  "it  must  not  by  any  means  be  said  that 
with  God  there  is  no  possibility  whereby  the  will  of  man 
can  be  assisted  to  such  a  degree,  that  there  can  be  ac- 
complished in  every  respect,  even  now,  in  a  man,  not 
that  righteousness  only  which  is  of  faith,  but  that  also 
in  accordance  with  which  we  shall  by  and  by  have  to 
live  for  ever  in  the  very  vision  of  God;" — yet,  they 
who  ask  why  this  is  not  actually  so  now,  forget  "the 
fact  that  they  are  human." ^  "There  is  now  a  training 
carried  on  in  growing  [Christians],  and  there  will  be  by 
all  means  a  completion  made,  after  the  conflict  with 
death  is  spent."'*  " The  same  regeneration  which  now 
sanctifies  even  our  outer  man,5  and  renews  our  spirit,  so 
that  all  our  past  sins  are  remitted,  will  by  and  by  also 
operate,  as  might  be  expected,  to  the  renewal  to  eternal 
life  of  that  very  flesh."  ^  "  By  this  laver  of  regeneration 
and  word  of  sanctification  all  the  evils  of  regenerate 
men  of  whatever  kind  are  cleansed  and  healed,  —  not 
the  sins  only  which  are  all  now  remitted  in  baptism,  but 
those  also  which  after  baptism  are  committed  by  human 

'  De  pecc.  orig.  45.  ^  De  pecc.  orig.  44.  ^  De  Spir.  et  lit.  66. 
*  De  perfec.  just  it.  16.  ^  De  nupt.  et  concupis,  i.  20.  ^  De  pecc. 
orig.  44. 


66  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

ignorance  and  frailty;"'  —  i.e.  (as  he  more  fully  de- 
clares) "  not  only  all  the  sins,  but  all  the  ills  of  men  of 
whatever  kind  so  ever,  are  in  course  of  removal  by  the 
sanctification  of  that  Christian  laver  whereby  Christ 
cleanses  His  Church."^  And  this  grace  of  Baptism  is 
accompanied  by  that  of  the  Eucharist ;  and  even  to 
infants  is  tJiis  further  grace  given ;  for,  although  S. 
Augustine  seems  to  teach  in  some  places  that  their  in- 
corporation into  Christ  is  enough  to  make  them  par- 
takers of  His  Body  and  Blood,  the  receiving  of  the 
Eucharist  also  is  made  generally  necessary,  (and  herein 
he  only  follows  the  teaching  of  the  Greek  Church)  in 
such  passages  as  this,  —  "  Reconciliation  through  Christ 
is  in  the  laver  of  regeneration,  and  in  the  Flesh  and 
Blood  of    Christ,  without  which  not  even  infants    can 

have  life  in  themselves."  ^ "Did  not  Adam,"  asks 

S.  Augustine,  "have  the  grace  of  God  .^  Yes,  truly,  he 
had  it  largely,  but  of  a  different  kind.  He  was  placed 
in  the  midst  of  benefits  which  he  had  received  from  the 
goodness  of  his  Creator ;  for  he  had  not  procured  those 
benefits  by  his  own  dcservings  ;  in  which  benefits  he 
suffered  absolutely  no  evil."  •*  "God  did  not  will  even 
him  to  be  without  His  grace,  which  He  left  in  his  free- 
choice.  .  .  ,  Such  was  the  nature  of  the  aid,  that  he 
could  forsake  it  when  he  would,  and  could  continue  in 
it  when  he  would  :  but  not  such  that  he  could  be  made 

'  De  mtpt.  etc.  i.  38.         =^  Id.  39. 

^  Ccm.  (hias  literas  Gic.'w.Si.  Cf.  ii.  7,  and  iv.  4.  The  fuller  reference  to 
S.  Augustine's  teaching  concerning  the  grace  of  the  Eucharist,  as  given 
in  other  writings,  is  reserved  for  a  distinct  topic. 

*  De  correp.  et  grat.  29. 


GRACE  INVINCIBLE  6/ 

to  tvill  his  continiiajicc.  This  first  is  the  grace  which 
was  given  to  the  first  Adam  ;  but  more  powerful  than 
this  is  that  in  the  second  Adam.  For  the  first  is  that 
whereby  it  is  effected  that  a  man  may  have  righteous- 
ness if  he  will ;  the  second  can  do  more  than  this,  since 
by  it  it  is  even  effected  tJiat  Jie  zvilly  and  wills  so  much, 
and  loves  with  such  ardor,  that  by  the  will  of  the  Spirit 
he  overcomes  the  will  of  the  flesh."  '  "  To  the  first  man 
.  .  .  was  given  the  aid  of  perseverance  ;  not  that  by 
it  it  might  come  to  pass  that  he  should  persevere,  but 
because  without  it  he  could  not  of  free-will  persevere. 
But  now,  to  the  saints  predestinated  by  God's  grace, 
...  it  is  not  only  that  without  that  gift  they  cannot  per- 
severe, but  .  .  .  that  by  means  of  this  gift  they  cannot 
help  persevering^  ^  So  he  concludes  "therefore  aid  was 
brought  to  the  infirmity  of  human  will,  so  that  it  might 
be  tincJiangeably  and  invincibly  infliiejiced  by  Divine 
grace  ;  and  thus,  although  weak,  it  still  might  not  fail, 
nor  be  overcome  by  any  adversity T  ^  —  "God's  predes- 
tination in  good  is  the  preparation  of  grace ;  which 
grace  is  actually  the  endowment  itself,  —  the  effect  of 
that  very  predestination."  "*  "  'But  why,'  says  one,  'is 
not  the  grace  of  God  given  according  to  man's  merits  ? ' 
I  answer,  'Because  God  is  merciful'  'Why,  then,'  it  is 
asked,  '  is  it  not  given  to  all } '  And  here  I  reply,  '  Be- 
cause God  is  a  Judge.'  And  thus  grace  is  given  by  Him 
freely  ;  and  by  His  righteous  judgment  it  is  shown  in 
some,  what  grace  confers  on  those  to  whom  it  is  given."  5 

*  /;/.   31.  2    Id.  34.  ^  Id.   38.  *  De  praedest.   sanct.    19. 

5  De  doti.  persev.  16. 


68  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

"If  you  ask,  'Why  will  He  punish  me  rather  than  an- 
other, or  deliver  him  rather  than  me  ? '  I  confess  that 
I  can  find  no  answer  to  make."'  "Is  there  unright- 
eousness with  God  ?  Away  with  the  thought !  But 
His  ways  are  past  finding  out.  Therefore  let  us  be- 
lieve in  His  mercy  in  the  case  of  those  who  are  de- 
livered, and  in  His  truth  in  the  case  of  those  who  are 
punished,  without  any  hesitation ;  and  let  us  not  en- 
deavor to  look  into  that  which  is  inscrutable,  nor  to 
trace  that  which  cannot  be  found  out."^  "From  all 
which  it  is  shown  with  sufficient  clearness  that  the 
grace  of  God,  which  both  begins  a  man's  faith  and 
enables  it  to  persevere,  is  not  given  in  respect  of  our 
merits,  but  according  to  His  own  most  secret,  and  at 
the  same  time  most  righteous,  wise,  and  beneficent  will. 
.  .  .  We  therefore  will,  but  God  worketh  in  us  to  will 
also.  We  therefore  work,  but  God  worketh  in  us  to 
work  also  for  His  good  pleasure."  ^ 

The  question  of  free-will  is  strictly  a  philosophical 
one ;  yet,  as  it  is  presented  in  S.  Augustine's  teachings, 
it  has  so  important  a  relation  to  other  questions,  that, 
while  we  do  not  profess  to  enter  into  it  with  any  degree 
of  minuteness,  we  are  not  permitted  to  pass  it  by.  Did 
S.  Augustine  teach  fi'ce-will?  Yes  ;  absolutely,  in  refer- 
ence to  man  before  the  Fall.  This  teaching  comes  out 
clearly  in  his  earlier  writings,  wherein,  as  we  have 
already  hinted,  we  think  it  quite  probable  that  he  also 
meant  to  teach  this  absolute  freedom  in  man  fallen. 
But  in  these  later  works,  —  emphatically  in  the  Anti- 

'  De  don.persev.  i8.  *  Id.  25.  ^  Id.  33. 


THREE-FOLD  SENSE   OF  FREEDOM  69 

Pelagian  writings,  under  the  pressure  of  controversy, 
he  certainly  propounds  a  different  theory  in  reference 
to  the  present  condition  of  the  race.  Some  have  ven- 
tured to  call  this  teaching  that  of  a  genuine  freedom. 
Poujoulat  affirms  that  Augustine  teaches  the  Catholic 
doctrine  to  be  "not  at  all  the  destruction  of  free-will, 
but  its  profound  modification  ; "  and  says,  "  so  far  is 
free-will  from  being  destroyed  in  sinful  man  [according 
to  Augustine],  it  is  this  free-will  which  determines  his 
si}if Illness,"  '  a  statement  which  does  not  go  very  deep. 
Many  other  Roman  Catholic  writers  have  strongly 
maintained  a  similar  position,  and  upon  like  grounds,  — 
notably,  perhaps,  a  thoughtful  critic  of  Canon  Mozley's 
Angnstinian  Doctrine  of  Predestination,  in  the  fortieth 
volume  of  the  Dublin  Reviezv.  Julius  Miiller,  in  his 
Christian  Doctrine  of  Sin,  distinguishes  a  three-fold 
sense  of  S.  Augustine's  use  of  the  term  freedom,  — 
(i)  that  of  absolute  power  of  choice  between  good  and 
evil,  as  belonging  originally  to  the  first  man ;  (2)  that 
spontaneity  essentially  belonging  to  the  human  will, 
which  marks  man's  present  condition  ;  wherein,  though 
he  be  under  the  power  of  necessity,  he  is  free  from 
constraint  ;  and  (3)  that  highest  freedom,  which,  begin- 
ning in  the  present  condition,  by  the  power  of  grace, 
can  be  perfect  only  in  the  future  life,  when  it  zvill  be 
impossible  to  sin.^  Canon  Mozley,  in  the  work  above 
referred  to,  very  fully  treats  of  Free-Will  as  held  by 
S.  Augustine  to  belong  to  fallen  man ;   and  concludes, 

'  Histoire  de  S.  Augustin,  III.  p.  125.         "  Vol.  II.  p.  35.     (Edinb. 
translation.) 


70  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

by  much  reasoning,  and  from  many  references,  that  it 
means  only  the  possession  of  a  zvill ;  that  in  part  it  does 
not  come  up  to  the  received  doctrine  of  free-will,  — the 
will  as  a  self-determining  power,  —  and  in  part  opposes 
it.' 

We  have  already  given  several  passages  in  which  S. 
Augustine  speaks  of  free-will  in  its  relations  to  grace. 
His  teaching  may  further  appear  in  what  follows.  His 
theory,  in  few  words,  is  this,  —  that  through  the  Fall 
man  lost  his  primal  liberty  and  the  grace  which  bestowed 
it  :  he  is  accordingly  free  only  in  the  direction  of  sin, 
until  the  grace  of  Christ  sets  him  free.  And  yet  he 
may  have  this  grace  always,  in  answer  to  prayer,  and 
in  ordinances  of  the  Church  ;  so  human  responsibility 
is  guarded,  while  his  own  consciousness  of  practical 
freedom  is  answer  enough  to  the  insinuations  of  fatal- 
ism. That  such  a  theory  teaches  the  Hbcrtas  indiffe- 
rentiae  can  hardly  be  averred ;  that  it  may  be  a  higher 
and  truer  theory  cannot  be  denied.  "Which  of  us 
can  say,"  he  writes,  "  that  by  the  sin  of  the  first  man 
free-will  perished  from  the  human  race .?  Through  sin 
liberty  indeed  perished,  but  it  was  that  liberty  which 
was  in  Paradise,  —  of  having  a  full  rigJiteoiisness  with 
immortality,  on  account  of  which  loss  human  nature  is 
without  divine  grace."  .  .  .  But  "free-will  did  not  so 
far  perish  in  the  sinner  but  that  by  it  all  sin ;  .  .  .  tlicy 
will  zvhat pleases  them.  Whence  also  the  Apostle  says, 
'  When  ye  were  the  servants  of  sin,  ye  were  free  from 
righteousness.'  .  .  .  They  are  not,  then,  free  from  right- 

'  PP-  '95-232,  (third  edition.) 


HIS  DOCTRINE  OF  FREE-WILL  J  \ 

eousness  except  by  the  choice  of  the  will,  but  they  do 
not  become  free  from  sin  save  by  the  grace  of  the 
Saviour."  '  He  puts  very  strongly  the  necessity  which 
"a  penal  viciousness  produced  out  of  the  original  lib- 
erty." "Vanquished  by  the  sin  into  which  it  fell  by 
the  bent  of  its  will,  iiatm-e  has  lost  its  liberty.  .  .  . 
Because  the  will  turned  to  sinning,  the  hard  necessity 
of  possessing  sin  pursued  the  sinner."  ==  So  now  "the 
captive  will  cannot  breathe  into  a  wholesome  liberty 
save  by  God's  grace."  ^  Free-will  "is  of  force  for  sin- 
ning in  men  subjected  to  the  devil ;  while  it  is  not  of 
avail  for  pious  living,  unless  made  free  by  God's  grace."  ^ 
Accordingly,  "he  who  falls,  falls  by  his  own  will,  and 
he  who  stands,  stands  by  God's  will."  s  Grace  "changes 
the  will  from  bad  to  good,  and  assists  it  when  good."  ^ 
Yet  "  it  is  not  to  be  for  a  moment  supposed,  because 
S.  Paul  said  '  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you '  etc.,  that 
he  meant  to  do  away  with  the  liberty  of  the  will.  If 
this  had  been  his  meaning,  he  would  not  have  said  just 
before,  'Work  out  your  own  salvation'"  etc.7  "What 
need  for  further  question  ? "  he  writes,  "  since  we 
call  that  pozvcr,  where  to  the  will  is  joined  the  ability 
to  do.  That  is  in  a  man's  power,  which  he  does  if  he 
wills,  and  if  he  does  not  will,  does  not  do."^     {Quod  si 

'  Con.  diias  literas,  etc.  i.  5. 

^  De  perfec.  justit.  9.  Cf.  the  strong  language  in  the  Enchiridion, 
XXX.  —  "  It  was  by  the  evil  use  of  his  free-will  that  man  destroyed  both 
it  and  himself." 

3  Con.    duas    literas,    etc.    iv.    3.  *  Id.    ii.    9.  ^  De    don. 

persev.  19.  ^  De  grat.  et  lib.  arbit.  41.  ''  Id.  21.  ^  De  Spir. 

et  lit.  53. 


72  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

v?ilf,facit,  si  non  vult,  nou  facit)  Again, — "what  is 
believing,  but  agreeing  to  the  truth  of  what  is  asserted  ? 
But  consent  proves  the  possession  of  will,  {volcjitis 
est;) — faith,  therefore,  is  in  our  own  power y  "^  "To 
yield  our  consent,  or  to  withhold  it,  .  .  .  is  the  function 
of  our  own  will."^  And  this  is  true,  he  says,  however 
much  God  influence  us,  externally  or  internally.  Prayer, 
too,  proves  resistance  to  sin  possible.  "  Whatever  may 
be  the  cause  [of  sin],  it  may  be  resisted.  Plainly  it 
may.  For  on  this  account  we  pray  for  help,  saying 
'Lead  us  not  into  temptation.'  This  help  we  should 
not  ask,  if  we  believed  that  resistance  were  quite  im- 
possible." ^  So  S.  Augustine  would  bring  his  readers 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  Pelagians  "  do  not  maintain 
free-will  by  purifying  it,  but  demolish  it  by  exaggerating 
it."'*  The  practical  question  is,  "What  the  ability 
of  man's  will  can  do,  when  assisted  by  the  grace  of 
God."  5  And  here,  God  docs  not  command  impossibili- 
ties. "Nor  is  any  one,"  he  says,  "forced  by  God's 
power  jinwi/Iingly,  either  into  evil  or  good  ;  but  when 
God  forsakes  a  man,  he  deservedly  goes  to  evil,  and 
when  God  assists,  without  deserving  he  is  converted  to 
good.  For  a  man  is  not  good  if  he  is  nmvilling,  but 
by  the  grace  of  God  he  is  even  assisted  to  the  point  of 
being  willing.''^'  "Who  is  drawn,  if  he  was  already 
willing }  And  yet  no  man  comes  unless  he  is  willing. 
Therefore   he   is  drawn   in  wondrous  ways  to  will,  by 

'  De  Spir.  et  lit.  54.  ^  Id.  60.  ^  /)^_  „^^t.  et  grat.  80.  ••  Con. 
duas  literas  etc.  i.  8.  ^  De  nai.  et  grat.  49.  '  Con.  duos  literas 
etc.  i.  36. 


PREDESTINA  TION  73 

Him  Who  knows  how  to  work  within  the  very  hearts 
of  men."  ' 

The  last  two  complete  treatises  of  S.  Augustine,  in 
this  great  controversy,  have  to  do  with  Predestination  and 
Perseverance.  Election  is  of  God's  mercy,  he  teaches  ; 
and  God's  ways  are  unsearchable.  Nor  is  it  any  con- 
tradiction, "that  grace  is  exceedingly  secret."^  God 
"has  mercy,  when  He  gives  good  things.  He  hardens, 
when  He  recompenses  what  is  deserved."  ^  Predestina- 
tion is  but  a  particularizing  of  God's  foreknowledge.'* 
"This  is  the  predestination  of  the  saints,  —  nothing 
else  ;  viz.  the  foreknoivledg-e  and  the  preparation  of  God's 
kindnesses,  whereby  they  are  most  certainly  delivered, 
whoever  they  are  that  are  delivered."  s  Cur  Lord,  in 
His  Incarnation,  he  regards  as  the  grandest  instance  of 
predestination.  It  was  "that  same  predestination  of 
the  saints  which  most  especially  shone  forth  in  [Him] 
the  Saint  of  saints."  ^  This  predestination  is  abso- 
lute. God  chooses  men  that  they  may  be  believers,  not 
because  tJicy  are  already  so, ^  nor  because  He  foresees  they 
will  be  so  :^  nor  is  anyone  to  be  judged  according  to 
what  he  might  have  done,  if  he  had  lived  longer.^  The 
statement  grows  even  more  intense :  "  it  did  not  do 
[the  Jews]  any  good  that  they  were  able  to  believe,  be- 
cause they  were  not  predestinated  by  Him  Whose  judg- 
ments are  inscrutable,  and  His  ways  past  finding  out. 
Neither  would  it  have  been  a  hindrance  to  them  that 

'  Cofi.  diias  literas  etc.  i.  37.  *  De  praedest.  sanct.  13.  ^  Id.  14. 
*  Id.  19.  De  do7i.  persev.  41.  '  De  do7i.  persev.  15,  35.  *■  De  praedest. 
sanct.  31.         ">  Id.  34.         *  Id.  37.         9  Jd.  24. 


74  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

they  could  not  believe,  if  they  had  been  so  predestinated, 
as  that  God  should  illumine  their  blind  eyes"'  etc. 
And  "  if,  on  the  hearing  of  this,  some  should  be  turned 
to  torpor  and  sloth,  and  from  striving,  should  go  head- 
long to  lust  after  their  own  desires,  is  it  therefore  to  be 
accounted  that  what  has  been  said  about  the  foreknowl- 
edge of  God  is  false  ?  "  ^  It  was  at  this  period  that  he 
could  allow  himself  to  interpret  "  Who  will  have  all 
men  to  be  saved"  (i  Tim.  ii.  4),  as  meaning  only  that 
"no  man  is  saved  unless  God  wills  his  salvation  ;  "  ^  — 
"all  men"  meaning  "all    classes  of  men,"  or  "every 

race  of  men." We  are  to  pray  iox pei'sc-oerance,  for 

ourselves  and  others,  — for  it  is  God's  gift.  The  Lord's 
prayer,  he  explains,  is  pre-eminently  the  saints'  prayer 
for  perseverance.'*  Even  they  who  do  not  persevere  may 
have  been  receivers  of  grace.  Those,  he  says,  "  must 
be  called  Christ's  disciples  and  God's  children,  whom, 
being  regenerated,  we  see  to  live  piously  ;  but  they  are 
then  truly  what  they  are  called,  if  they  shall  abide  in 
that  on  account  of  which  they  are  so  called."  5  Predes- 
tination "  must  be  preached,"  for  it  bids  men  glory  in 
the  Lord  ;  and  it  need  not  discourage,  any  more  than 
preaching  God's  gifts  need  discourage  obedience.^  Yet, 
it  is  to  be  proclaimed  %vith  great  discretion,  implying 
need  of  action,  and  the  reward  promised,  and  making 
general  application  of  the  truth,  and  speaking  to  all 
present  as  if  they  might  be  receivers  of  grace. ^     And, 

'  De  don.  persev.  35.  *  Id.  3S.  ^  Enchirid.  ciii.  Cf.  De  correp.  et 
grat.  44.  *  De  don.  persev.  3.  ^  ^^  correp.  et  grot.  22.  ?  De  don. 
persev.  50,  51.         ^  Id.  57-61. 


rERSEVERANCE  75 

as  no  one  can  be  certain  of  eternal  life  until  death,  he 

again  more  strenuously  urges  the  duty  of  prayer.' 

We  may  not  pass  over  his  allusion,  in  one  of  the  closing 
chapters  of  the  treatise  De  dono  perseverantiac,  to  the 
pressure  which  the  controversy  has  brought  to  bear 
upon  him,  — how  that  necessity  has  compelled  him  to 
"more  carefully  and  laboriously  defend  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  because  of  these  special  heresies."  For 
"the  Pelagians  say  that  God's  grace  is  given  according 
to  our  merits  ;  and  what  else  is  this  than  an  absolute 
denial  of  grace  .^"^ 

In  all  these  writings  of  S.  Augustine  perhaps  the 
greater  part  of  his  reasoning  may  be  admitted,  and 
that  too  without  calling  it  "the  seductive  glamour  of 
his  dialectic,"  ^  which  is  going  to  ensnare  us  and  cap- 
tivate us  :  and  if  we  own  that  great  principle  of  the 
other  side  of  truth,  most  of  his  conclusions  upon  these 
majestic  themes  need  not  surprise  us,  if  we  are  think- 
ing people,  who  have  ever  met  speculative  difficulties. 
To  some  there  may  be  help  towards  the  balancing  of 
the  Divine  and  the  human  relations  of  these  deep 
mysteries  in  his  own  words  in  the  De  Civitate  Dei,  — 
words  more  calm  and  quiet  and  spiritually  devout,  more 
like  himself.  "  It  does  not  follow,  that,  though  there  is 
for  God  a  certain  order  of  all  causes,  there  must  there- 
fore be  nothing  depending  on  the  free  exercise  of  our 
own  wills,  for  our  %vills  themselves  are  included  in  that 
order  of  causes  which  is  certain  to  God,  and  is  embraced 
by  His  foreknowledge,— ior  human  wills  are  also  causes 
»  Id.  62,  63.  ^  Id.  53-  '  Owen. 


•je  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

of  human  actions ;  and  He  Who  foreknew  all  the 
causes  of  things  would  certainly  among  those  causes 
not  have  been  ignorant  of  our  wills."  .  .  .  "Neither  let 
us  be  afraid,  lest,  after  all,  we  do  not  do  by  will  that 
which  we  do  by  will,  because  He  Whose  foreknowledge 
is  infallible  foreknew  that  we  would  do  it."  '  We  need 
not  "  have  any  dread  of  necessity  taking  away  the  free- 
dom of  our  will."  .  .  .  "We  are  by  no  means  com- 
pelled, retaining  the  prescience  of  God,  to  take  away 
the  freedom  of  the  will,  or  retaining  the  freedom  of  the 
will,  to  deny  that  He  is  prescient  of  future  things, 
which  is  impious.  But  we  embrace  both.  We  faith- 
fully and  sincerely  confess  both.  The  former,  that  we 
may  believe  well  ;  the  latter,  that  we  may  live  well. 
For  he  lives  ill  who  does  not  believe  well  concerning 
God."^ 

These  last  words  of  his  form  a  fitting  transition  to 
what  we  wish  to  say  concerning  certain  other  important 
teaching  of  S.  Augustine,  not  directly  connected  with 
either  of  the  three  great  controversies  in  which  he  was 
engaged.  It  would  be  leaving  an  essential  part  of  our 
subject  untouched,  did  we  not  at  least  draw  attention 
to  these  other  points  of  his  teaching.  And  however  ob- 
scure, or  severe,  or  intensely  dogmatic  (in  the  popular 
abuse  of  that  word)  we  may  have  found  a  part  of  what 
he  says  against  the  Pelagians,  there  is  this  to  be  taken 
into  account,  that  those  doctrines  are  not  all  tJtat  is  to  be 
found  in  5.  Angustine.     Indeed,  many  good  judges  and 

•  Dc  Civ.  Dei,  V.  9.  ^  Id.  v.  lo. 


OTHER  IMPORTANT  DOCTRINE  yj 

eminent  theologians  of  the  Church  consider  that  in 
such  a  book  as  Canon  Mozley's  Angiistinian  Doctrine  of 
Predestination  there  is  a  grave  exaggeration  of  the  place 
which  predestination  held  in  Augustine's  great  rich 
mind,  as  compared  with  other  doctrines,  —  e.g.  with  that 
of  sacramental  grace.  Certainly  in  him  predestination 
and  its  allied  truths  are  not  everything,  much  as  they 
have  been  made  so  by  those  who  took  the  opportunity 
which,  we  own,  he  gave  them,  and  built  up  harder  walls 
and  higher  barriers  than  he  ever  did,  to  shut  in  their 
select  systems.  Let  S.  Augustine  be  devoutly  read 
and  studied  and  meditated  upon,  and  his  comprehen- 
siveness will  be  perceived ;  and  in  his  comprehensive- 
ness is  one  element  of  his  greatness. 

To  ^^  believe  ivell  concerning  God,"  as  he  says  in  those 
words  just  quoted,  expresses  what  was  to  him  the 
foundation  of  religion.  And  his  teaching  concerning 
God  is  full  of  grand  conception  of  what  He  is  in  His 
revelation  of  Himself  to  us,  and  of  earnest  counsel  to 
us  in  our  relations  to  Him.  Many,  in  the  freedom  of 
thinking  which  is  so  rife  to-day,  refuse  to  accept  any 
proper  notion  of  God's  sovereignty,  and  shrink  with 
horror  from  what  they  conceive  to  be  S.  Augustine's 
idea  of  God  as  derived  from  the  Anti-Pelagian  writings. 
But  even  in  those  writings  we  maintain  that  his  idea  of 
God  is  not  —  as  the  author  of  The  Continuity  of  Chris- 
tian Thought  says  —  that  of  "absolute  and  arbitrary 
wz7/ in  which  consists  the  only  giound  of  right;"'  as 
if  He  were  "a  bloodthirsty  tyrant,"  "a  horrible  kind 
'  p.  171- 


78  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

of  divine  Nero,"  as  another  writer  puts  it,  who  compla- 
cently declares,  that  S.  Augustine  "either  did  not  see, 
or  probably  failed  to  appreciate  the  truth,  that  power, 
unbounded  by  considerations  of  justice,  mercy,  and 
goodness,  is  certainly  arbitrary,  and  may  be  maleficent 
in  its  operations."'  Neither  of  these,  surely,  are  defini- 
tions of  God  which  are  justified  by  the  writings  against 
the  Pelagians ;  and  though  the  ideas  of  Almighty  Power 
and  Will  are  there  made  prominent,  we  can  see  how 
this  naturally  came  to  be  from  the  conditions  of  the 
controversy,  and  he  tells  us  the  same  in  his  own  words. 
Moreover,  if  any  are  so  troubled  by  his  teaching  on  this 
point  as  to  be  driven  to  pervert  it,  what  would  they  do 
with  certain  well  known  language  of  S.  Paul's  Epistles .-' 
Would  they  represent  that  this  was  all  Ids  teaching 
about  God }  Or  would  they  throw  out  these  so  severe 
words,  and  re-construct  the  Bible }  It  might,  perhaps, 
be  thus  better  adapted  to  the  Church  which  is  no  more 
than  "the  consentient  reason  of  those  who  are  enlight- 
ened by  a  divine  teacher  speaking  within  the  soul!"^ 

S.  Augustine,  at  all  events,  has  other  and  fuller  re- 
presentations of  God.3  Let  us  briefly  point  out  his 
teaching.  The  Confessioncs  is  the  work  which  will  nat- 
urally be  first    suggested    to    most    minds,    as   full   of 

'  Owen's  Evenings  with  the  Skeptics,  Vol.  II.  p.  195.  "  Continuity 

etc.  p.  J  50.     Cf.  p.  30  of  this  Essay. 

^  Even  Mr.  Owen,  with  all  his  bitterness  against  dogma  and  the 
Church,  as  shown  in  his  Essay  on  The  Skepticism  of  S.  Augustine, 
admits  the  exceptional  value  of  Augustine's  teaching  about  God,  and 
admires  its  combined  sublimity  and  versatility.  Vid.  Evenings  with  the 
Skeptics,  Vol.  II.  pp.  191,  194,  515. 


DOCTRINE  CONCERNING  GOD  79 

devout  sentiment  concerning  God ;  yet  its  statements 
are  equalled,  if  not  excelled,  by  those  of  the  De  Civi- 
tate  Dei,  and  the  De  Trinitate.  He  feels  that  he  cannot 
speak  of  God,  or  worthily  utter  His  praise, — for  God 
is  "  unspeakable  ; "  and  even  to  call  Him  so,  is  "an  oppo- 
sition of  words  which  is  rather  to  be  avoided  by  silence 
than  explained  away  by  speech."'  "The  clearer  the 
sight  of  Him,"  even,  "the  less  is  the  power  of  expres- 
sion." ^  Yet,  it  is  a  step  towards  knowing  what  He  is, 
to  know  what  He  is  not.^  God  is  incomprehensible  j^ 
yet  we  may  know  Him,  —  and  the  knowledge  of  Him  is 
the  sublimity  of  attainment. 5  He  is  in  constant  ac- 
tivity, in  infinite  space  and  time  ;  ^  —  there  is  no  gvoivth 
in  His  knowledge ;  His  knowledge  of  past,  present, 
future,  is  all  one.  7  God  is  incomprehensible,  yet  to 
be  ever  sought,^ — although  the  imperfection  of  our 
knowing  Him  be  so  great,  compared  with  the  perfection 
of  His  knoxving  iis."^  God  is  the  Eternal  Light,  the 
Truth,  the  One  alone  absolutely  good ;  '°  the  "  good  of 
all  good."  "  All  others  are  to  be  loved  in  God  and  for 
God.'''  God  alone  satisfies  ; '^  He  is  Himself  the  great 
Reward,  "  the  perfection  of  happiness,  the  sum  of  the 
happy  life  eternal."  "»     "What  then.!*"  he  asks,  "hath 

'  De  Doc.  Christ,  i.  6.  Canon  Freemantle  calls  this  "  S.  Augustine's 
confession  of  Agnosticism  " !     Bamp.  Led.  p.  436. 

^  Con.  Epis.  Munich.  21.  ^  De  Trin.  viii.  3.  ♦  De  Trin.  xv.  2. 
s  De.  Civ.  Dei,  xi.  2.  *  Id.  xi.  5.  ''  De  Civ.  Dei,  xi.  21 ;  De  Trin. 
XV.  13,  22.         ^  De  Trin.  xv.  2,  49.  9  Jd.  ix.  i.         '°  De  perfec.  justit. 

32 ;  De  nupt.  etc.  ii.  48.  "  De  Trin.  viii.  4.  '^  Con.  Faust,  xxii.  78 ; 
Conf.  iv.  18.  "  De  Civ.  Dei,  x.  25;  De  Doc.  Christ,  i.  35,  n-  '"  De 
Sp.  et  lit.  37,  39 ;  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxii.  30. 


8o  SAIXT  AUGUSTINE 

God  no  reward  ?  None,  save  Himself.  The  reward  of 
God  is  God  Himself."  '  And,  as  He  is  the  chief  good, 
it  is  our  chief  good  to  be  united  to  Him.^  We  seek 
Him  in  vain  through  nature  alone  :  —  "  Why  do  we  go 
forth  and  run  to  the  heights  of  the  heavens  and  the  low- 
est parts  of  the  earth,  see'king  Him  who  is  within  us,  if 
we  wish  to  be  with  Him  V  ^  —  a  remarkable  utterance  ; 
for  with  all  S.  Augustine's  teaching  of  the  ethical  tran- 
scendence of  God,  he  taught  His  true  immanence  ;  and 
his  writings' are  as  much  aglow  with  the  thought  of  the 
nearness  of  God,'*  as  they  are  with  that  of  intense  long- 
ing for  Him.  God  must  first  be  believed  ;  we  must 
believe,  before  we  understand  ;  5  and  on  this  point  he 
has  a  wise  caution;  —  "we  must  take  care,  lest  the  mind, 
believing  that  which  it  does  not  see,  feign  to  itself  some- 
thing which  is  not,  and  hope  for  and  love  that  which  is 
false;  '^  —  and  then  He  is  to  be  known  and  loved. 
"  Who  loves  what  he  does  not  know }  .  .  .  And  what 
is  it  to  know  God,  but  to  behold  Him  and  steadfastly 
perceive  Him  with  the  mind  .-'  "  ^  There  is  a  striking 
passage  upon  the  love  of  God  and  one's  brother ;  — 
"  Let  no  one  say,  I  do  not  know  what  I  love.  Let 
him  love  his  brother,  and  he  will  love  the  same  love. 
For  he  knows  the  love  with  which  he  loves,  more  than 
the  brother  whom  he  loves.  So  now  he  can  know  God 
more  than  he  knows  his  brother ;  clearly  knozvn  more, 
because  more  present ;  knozon  more,  because  more  %vithi)i 

'  In  Ps.  Ixxii.  32.  =>  Be  Civ.  Dei,  x.  3.  ^  De  Trin.  viii.  11. 
*  Conf.  iv.  18,  19;  V.  2;  vi.  4,  26;  ix,  28.  *  De  Trin.  viii.  8:  *  Id. 
viii.  6.         7  Id. 


DOCTRINE  CONCERNING   THE   TRINITY        8 1 

him  ;  known  more,  because  -more  certain.  Embrace  the 
love  of  God,  and  by  love  embrace  God."  '  So  believing, 
knowing,  and  loving  Him,  we  must  "  rise  to  Him  by 
spiritual  conformity."^  Tenderly  and  powerfully  does 
Augustine  urge  our  return  to  God,  if  we  have  strayed 
from  Him; — "In  ourselves  beholding  His  image,  let 
us,  like  that  younger  son  of  the  gospel,  come  to  our- 
selves, and  arise  and  return  to  Him  from  Whom  by 
our  sin  we  had  departed.  There  our  being  will  have 
no  death,  our  knowledge  no  error,  our  love  no  mishap."  ~ 
Upon  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  S.  Augustine 
is  very  full  and  strong,  as  we  might  expect  from  his  hav- 
ing written  so  profound  a  treatise  upon  it  ;  in  which, 
however,  he  rather  traces  types  and  resemblances  in 
ourselves  to  the  Triune  nature,  than  assumes  to  give  a 
purely  argumentative  proof,  or  to  exhaust  the  full 
meaning  of  the  doctrine.'*  In  this  work,  as  well  as  in 
the  De  Doctrina  Christiana,  he  has  language  which  has 
frequently  been  commented  upon,  as  bearing  striking 
resemblance  to  that  of  the  Athanasian  Creed. s  The 
Holy  Spirit,  he  teaches,  proceeds  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son:^  He  is  "the  unutterable  communion"  of 
Father  and  Son,  yet  substance,  and  of  one  substance 
with  Father  and  Son.7  He  owns  he  cannot  express 
the  mystery,  nor  at  all  fathom  the  depths  of  God's 
nature.^ 

'  Id.  viii.  12.         ^  De  Civ.  Dei,  ix.   i8.  ^  ^^  ^/j,_  ^^/^  ^i.  28. 

'•  Vid.  Haddan's  Preface  to  the  translation  of  the  Edinburgh  edition,  p.  vi. 
5  De  Trill,  v.  1 1 ;  De  Doc.  Christ,  i.  5.  ^  De  Trin.  iv.  29 ;  xv.  29. 
'  De  Trin.  v.  12;  vi.  7  ;  vii.  6.        ^  Id.  xv.  45. 


82  SAINT  A  UGUSTINE 

Through  the  lucaniatioii  of  our  Lord,  he  teaches,  is 
our  approach  to  God.  The  Son  of  God  became  Son  of 
man,  that  sons  of  men  might  by  grace  become  through 
Him  sons  of  God.'  Thus,  we  who  have  not  the  nature 
of  God,  and  are  yet  partakers  of  God  by  His  image 
which  is  in  us,  are  brought  nearer  through  the  God- 
man. ="  This  Incarnation  is  a  true  taking  of  humanity 
into  the  Divine  Person  of  the  Word:  —  "That  nativity 
.  .  .  conjoined,  in  the  unity  of  the  person,  man  to 
God,  flesh  to  the  Word,"^  "At  the  very  moment 
that  He  began  to  be  Man,  He  was  nothing  else  than 
the  Son  of  God  ;  ...  so  Christ  in  one  person  unites  the 
Word  and  man."-*  "So  far  as  He  is  God,  He  and  the 
Father  are  one  ;  so  far  as  He  is  man,  the  Father  is 
greater  than  He."  s  This  is  "the  Incarnation  of  the 
unchangeable  Son  of  God,  ivhcrcby  zuc  are  saved."  ^  It 
is  the  richest  grace  to  us.  "The  grace  of  God  could  not 
have  been  more  graciously  commended  to  us,  than  thus, 
that  the  only  Son  of  God,  remaining  unchangeable  in 
Himself,  should  assume  humanity  ;"  ^  —  and  thus  "He 
leads  us  straight  to  that  Trinity  by  participation  in 
which  the  angels  themselves  are  blessed."^  The  In- 
carnation was  to  convince  men  of  what  seemed  incredi- 
ble.9  It  was  to  teach  humility. '°  It  was  to  demonstrate 
to  man  his  place  in  God's  creatioti ;"  to  show  "at  how 
great  a  price  God  rated  us,  and  how  greatly  He  loved 

•  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  15.  -  De  Trin.  xiv.  il;  cf.  Dc  Civ.  Dei,  xi.  2. 
3  De  correp.  et  grat.  30.         ■♦  Enchirid.  xxxvi.  *  jj   x.xxv.  *  De 

Civ.  Dei,  x.  29.         ^  De  Civ.  Dei,  x.  29.         ^  Id.  ix.  15.        ?  De  Tmt. 
xiii.  12.         ■°  /</.  xiii.  22.         "  Id. 


THE  INCARNATION — THE  ANGELS  Z^ 

us."'  Christ  tJie  Mediator  \'&  continually  presented  to 
our  thought,  mediating  on  earth  and  in  heaven  ;  "  shed- 
ding His  innocent  blood  for  the  remission  of  our  sins,"  ^ 
and  that  by  a  voluntary  sacrifice  ;  ^  —  rising  again,  and 
taking  His  glorious  Body  up  into  the  heavenly  places.'* 

This  Father  has  extensive  teaching  in  relation  to 
The  Angels,  —  their  creation,  nature,  relations  to  us 
present  and  future,  etc.,  upon  which  we  cannot  dwell, 
but  to  which  we  will  simply  allude.  A  point  of  much 
interest  is  his  belief  that  the  angels  who  did  not  fall 
sJiall  never  fall,  —  have  an  eternal  blessedness  assured 
to  them,  as  the  reward  of  their  fidelity ;  5  and  another, 
that  the  redeemed  and  saved  among  men  are  to  make 
good  the  places,  in  bliss,  of  the  angels  who  were  lost.^ 
Our  earthliness  prevents  our  nearer  fellowship  now 
with  the  holy  angels  ;  ^  to  be  ranked  with  them  here- 
after will  be  the  height  of  our  perfection.^ 

Of  the  teaching  of  S.  Augustine  upon  The  Sacra- 
ments and  their  grace  we  have  already  spoken  to  some 
extent,  and  have  given  many  passages  bearing  upon  the 
subject,  especially  in  reference  to  Holy  Baptism,  as 
that  subject  came  before  us  in  treating  of  the  Donatist 
controversy.  But  there  is  much  more  to  be  said ;  and 
the  topic  might  worthily  receive  even  much  fuller  con- 

'  Id.  xiii.  13.  2  Id.  xiii.  i8.  ^  Id.  iv.  i6.  •♦  De  Civ.  Dei,  x.  29. 
^  Id.  xi.  13;  xxii.  I.         ^  Enchirid.  Ixi.         '  De  Civ.  Dei,  viii.  25. 

^  Con.  Faust,  xxii.  28.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  observed  that 
S.  Augustine  has  been  severely  criticised  by  some  for  departing  from  the 
earlier  tradition  in  teaching  that  The  Angel  of  the  Lord  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment was  not  the  Son  of  God.  Vid.  Medd's  One  Mediator ;  cf.  Liddon's 
Divinity  of  our  Lord,  p.  55. 


84  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

sideration  than  we  now  give  it.  Augustine  often  uses 
the  word  sacravicnt  in  its  extended  sense,  as  is  com- 
mon among  the  Fathers;  —  sometimes  in  a  very  loose 
way,  e.g.  distinguishing  "the  sacrament  of  baptism" 
from  "the  sacrament  of  conferring  baptism."'  He 
tersely  contrasts  the  sacraments  of  the  new  with  those 
of  the  old  dispensation;  the  former,  few,  simple,  majes- 
tic, sacred,  "such,  e.g.  as  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  and 
the  celebration  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  the  Lord."^ 
Even  as  a  visible  symbol,  for  a  bond  of  union,  "their 
importance  cannot  be  overstated,  and  only  scoffers  will 
treat  them  lightly."  ^  In  one  passage  he  dwells  upon 
the  resemblance  of  sacraments  to  the  things  of  which 
they  are  the  sacraments,  and  says  "  if  they  had  not 
such  resemblance,  they  would  not  be  sacraments  at 
all;""*  and  continues,  —  "in  most  cases,  moreover,  they 
do,  in  virtue  of  this  likeness,  bear  the  names  of  the 
realities  which  they  resemble  : "  —  so,  he  says,  "  in  a 
certain  manner,  the  sacrament  of  Christ's  Body  is 
Christ's  Body,  and  the  sacrament  of  Christ's  Blood  is 
Christ's  Blood  ;  "  '^  where  the  connection  shows  that  he 
means  to  refer  to  the  deep  spiritual  mystery  of  this 
sacrament.  It  is  not  a  literal,  carnal  death,  i.e.  which 
takes  place  in  the  Eucharist ;  the  death  is  sacramen- 
tally  celebrated.  "Was  not  Christ,"  he  says,  "once  for 
all  offered  up  in  His  own  Person  as  a  sacrifice  .-*  and 
yet,  is  He  not  likewise  offered  up  in  the  sacrament  as 
a  sacrifice  .''  "  •♦     In  another  place  he  well  distinguishes 

*  De  Bapiismo,  i.  z.        ^  De  Doc.  Christ,  iii.  13;  Con.  Faust.  .\i.\.  13,  14. 
'  Con.  Faust,  xw.  11.         •♦  Ep.  xc\i\\.  ^,  ad  Boni factum. 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  SACRAMENTS  85 

between  the  outward  and  the  inward  ;  —  "The  material 
symbols  are  nothing  else  than  visible  speech,  which, 
though  sacred,  is  changeable  and  transitory.  While 
God  is  eternal,  the  water  of  baptism  and  all  that  is 
material  in  the  sacrament  is  transitory ;  the  very  word 
*  God,'  which  must  be  pronounced  in  the  consecration, 
is  a  sound  which  passes  in  a  moment.  The  actions  and 
sounds  pass  away,  but  their  efficacy  remains  the  same, 
and  the  spiritual  gift  thus  communicated  is  eternal.'' '  — 
In  reference  to  the  special  grace  of  Baptism  we  venture 
to  give  one  more  passage  in  addition  to  those  previously 
cited:  —  "This  is  the  meaning  of  the  great  sacrament 
of  baptism  which  is  solemnized  among  us,  that  all  who 
attain  to  this  grace  should  die  to  sin,  .  .  ,  and  rising 
from  the  font  regenerate,  .  .  .  should  begin  a  new  life 
in  the  Spirit,  whatever  may  be  the  age  of  the  body,"  ^  — 
words  which  are  strikingly  like  those  of  our  Baptismal 
Offices. Referring  now  a  little  more  fully  to  S.  Au- 
gustine's Eucharistic  teaching,  —  it  may  be  observed 
that  in  his  explanation  of  S.  John  vi.  53  ("except  ye 
eat  the  flesh  "  etc.)  in  the  De  Doctrina  Christiana,  he  at 
first  appears  to  teach  only  the  low  and  merely  memorial 
significance  of  the  Sacrament.  He  is  illustrating  the 
interpretation  of  figures  and  figurative  expressions  in 
Scripture.  These  words,  he  says,  are  "a  figure,  —  en- 
joining that  we  should  have  a  share  in  the  sufferings  of 
our  Lord,  and  that  we  should  retain  a  sweet  and  profit- 
able memory  of  the  fact  that  His  flesh  was  wounded 
and  crucified  for  us."  ^     This  is  all  true  enough.     But 

'   Co7i.  Faust,  xix.  16.       ^  Enchirid.  xlii.       ^  De  Doctr.  Christ,  iii.  24. 


86  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

we  must  examine  what  further  teaching  he  may  have 
upon  the  Eucharist.  He  says  in  the  De  Tj-initate 
(iii.  lo)  that  "the  fruits  of  the  earth,  consecrated  by 
mystic  prayer,  and  received  duly  to  our  spiritual  health, 
are  sanctified  to  become  so  great  a  sacrament  ojdy  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  yNorVing  invisibly."  Here  is  the  ad- 
ditional idea  of  the  Divine  power  accomplishing  the  con- 
secration, and  making  the  Sacrament  Divine  food  to  us. 
There  is  grace  in  the  Sacrament.  In  a  passage  of  the 
De  Civitate  Dei  (xvii.  20)  there  is  a  still  fuller  meaning. 
He  is  explaining  the  words  —  "Wisdom  hath  builded 
her  an  house"  etc.  "The  Wisdom  of  God,  the  Word 
coeternal  with  the  Father,  hath  builded  Him  an  House, 
even  a  human  body  in  the  virgin  womb,  and  hath  sub- 
joined the  Church  to  it  as  members  to  an  head, 
.  ,  ,  hath  furnished  a  table  with  wine  and  bread,"  etc. 
.  .  .  "To  be  made  partakers  of  this  table  is  itself  to 
begin  to  have  life."  .  .  .  "This  table  .  .  .  the  Mediator 
of  the  New  Testament  Himself  .  .  .  furnishes  with  His 
ozvn  Body  and  Blood.''  .  .  .  "That  sacrifice  has  suc- 
ceeded all  the  sacrifices  of  the  Old  Testament."  .  .  . 
"  Instead  of  all  these  sacrifices  and  oblations  His  Body 
is  offered,  and  is  served  up  to  the  partakers  of  it.''  Here 
is  the  distinct  statement,  that  what  we  receive  in  the 
Sacrament,  which  was  before  taught  to  be  spiritual 
food,  is  the  Body  and  Blood  of  the  Lord.  Again,  in  the 
De  Civitate  Dei  (xxi.  25)  "What  it  is  /;/  reality,  and  not 
sacramental ly,  to  eat  His  Body  and  drink  His  Blood," 
he  says  Christ  Himself  shows;  —  "this  is  to  dwell  in 
Christy  that  He  also  may  dwell  in  us.     It  is  as  if  He 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE  ^J 

said, — he  that  dwelleth  not  in  Me  and  in  whom  I  do 
not  dwell,  let  him  not  say  or  think  that  he  eatcth  My 
Body  or  drinketh  My  Blood ; "  — words  which  justify  the 
reference  to  Augustine  in  our  Art.  XXIX.,  as  teaching 
that  the  wicked  are  in  no  wise  partakers  of  Christ, 
although  they  sacramentally  receive  His  Body.  The 
passages  cited  are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  Real 
Presence  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrament  was  the  belief 
of  S.  Augustine.  And  as  for  such  expressions,  written 
elsewhere,  as  "  Why  make  ready  the  teeth  and  the 
belly?  Believe  and  thou  hast  eaten;"  —  "To  believe 
on  Him,  this  is  to  eat  the  living  Bread,"  —  they  are 
in  entire  harmony  with  his  other  teaching ;  and  more- 
over, if  pressed,  might  go  to  establish  the  reductio  ad 
absiirdtnu  that  the  Real  Presence  was  not  believed  by 
even  Paschasius  himself,  who  once  wrote  "  Christum 
vorari  fas  dentibus  non  est," — as  of  course  every  be- 
liever in  the  Real  Presence  would  acknowledge.'  — 
The  sacrifice  in  the  Eucharist  he  as  plainly  affirms  ; 
and  presents  as  clearly  as  possible  the  great  sacramen- 
tal truth  of  the  Church's  offering  of  herself  in  and  with 
the  offering  of  the  great  High  Priest.  His  definition 
of  a  true  sacrifice  is  most  excellent,  as  being  "every 
work  done  that  we  may  be  united  to  God  in  holy  fellow- 
ship, and  which  has  reference  to  that  supreme  good 
and  end  in  which  alone  we  can  be  truly  blessed  ; "  ^  and 
his  teaching  is,  that  "the  whole  redeemed  city,  i.e. 
the  congregation  or  community  of  the  saints,  is  offered 
to  God  as  o?ir  sacrifice  through  the  great  High  Priest, 
•  Vid.  Ch.  Quart.  Rev.  Vol.  IX.  p.  209.  ^  De  Civ.  Dei,  x.  6. 


88  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

Who,  that  we  might  be  members  of  this  glorious  Head, 
offered  Himself  to  God  in  His  Passion  for  us,  in  the 
form  of  a  servant.  .  .  .  This  is  the  sacrifice  of  Chris- 
tians ;  we,  being  many,  are  one  Body  in  Christ.  And 
this  also  is  the  sacrifice  zvhich  the  CJmrch  continually 
celebrates  in  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,  known  to  the 
faithful,  in  which  she  teaches  that  she  herself  is  offered 
in  the  offering  she  makes  to  God.'' ' 

Prayer  for  the  faithful  departed  had  been  the  custom 
of  the  Church  long  before  S.  Augustine's  day.  It  is 
not  strange,  then,  that  we  find  direct  and  indirect 
teaching  on  this  point  in  his  works.  When  his  holy 
mother,  Monica,  was  taken  from  him,  her  dying  request 
was  this,  "  Lay  my  body  anywhere,  let  not  the  care 
for  it  trouble  you  at  all.  This  only  I  ask,  that  you 
will  remember  me  at  the  Lord's  altar  wherever  you 
be." '  And  he  begs  all  who  read  his  Confessions  to  thus 
remember  her,  —  that  so  her  last  entreaty  may  be 
more  abundantly  fulfilled  to  her  through  the  prayers  of 
the  many.3  We  find  him  also  elsewhere  teaching  the 
benefit  to  the  departed  of  prayers,  and  alms,  and  the 
Sacrament  of  the  altar.'*  He  afifirms,  however,  as  if 
guarding  against  the  danger  of  a  departure  from  primi- 
tive usage,  that  no  prayer  is  of  avail  for  those  who  die 
impenitent  ;—  "no  one  need  hope  that  after  he  is  dead 
he  shall  obtain  merit  with  God  which  he  has  neglected 
to  secure  here  ;  "5  — though  he  does  condone  the  making 
of  offerings  for  such,  as  a  kind  of  comfort  to  the  living.^ 

'  Id.        *  Cofi/ess.  ix.  27.         ^  jj  j^.  ^7.        4  Enchirid.  ex. ;  De  Civ. 
Dei,  xxi.  24,  27.        s  Etuhirid.  ex.        *>  Id.;  also  vid.  Serm.  xxxii. 


THE  INTERMEDIATE  STATE  89 

Not  only  prayer  and  sacrament  for  the  departed  are 
taught,  but  the  prayers  of  the  saints  for  us  are  invoked. 
"May  he  help  us  by  his  prayers,"  —  he  writes  of 
S.  Cyprian  departed ;  and  for  this  aid  he  says  he 
longs.' 

The  Intermediate  State,  he  teaches,  is  one  in  which 
"the  soul  dwells  in  a  hidden  retreat,  where  it  enjoys 
rest  or  suffers  affliction  just  in  proportion  to  the  merit 
it  has  earned  by  the  life  which  it  led  on  earth."  ^  Con- 
nected with  his  teaching  on  this  point  is  what  he  says 
upon  the  need  of  cleansing  to  the  soul  in  this  Inter- 
mediate State,  and  how  far  it  is  of  avail.  He  writes  in 
one  place  that  souls  "when  purged  from  all  contagion 
of  corruption  are  placed  in  peaceful  abodes  until  they 
take  their  bodies  again."  ^  Again  he  connects  this 
cleansing  with  the  Judgment;  —  "it  appears  .  .  .  that 
some  shall  in  the  last  Judgment  suffer  some  kind  of 
purgatorial  punishments  ; "  ^  though  in  another  place 
his  teaching  is  that  we  are  not  to  "fancy  that  there 
are  any  purgatorial  pains  except  before  that  final  and 
dreadful  judgment."  s  Some  "shall  not  even  suffer 
purgatorial  torments  after  death."  ^  He  has  a  great 
deal  to  say  in  his  writings,  of  the  need  of  the  soul's 
being  cleansed,  —  purified,  —  that  it  may  have  power  to 
see  God :  in  this  life  "men  see  Him  just  so  far  as  they 
die  to  this  world  ;  and  so  far  as  they  live  to  it  they  see 
Him  not ;"  ^  and  he  but  carries  his  idea  on  to  the  other 

'  De  Baptismo,  v.  23;  vii.  i.  ^  Enchirid.  cix.  Stronger  language  is 
used  in  Depraedest.  sanct.  24.  ^  De  Trin.  xv.  44.  "  De  Civ.  Dei,  xx.  2  5. 
5  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  13,  16.        ^  Id.  xxi.  16.        '  De  Doc.  Christ,  i.  10;  ii.  11. 


90  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

world,  in  all  that  he  says  about  purgatorial  discipline ; 
yet  his  doctrine  is  on  the  whole  obscure.  He  more 
than  once  gives  lengthy  explanation  of  the  text  — 
"  saved,  yet  so  as  by  fire."  He  interprets  the  fire  — 
of  affliction,  and  grief,  and  tribulation  ;  and  then,  after 
referring  to  a  fire  between  death  and  the  judgment, 
adds  —  "if  it  be  said  that  [such]  worldliness,  being 
venial,  shall  be  consumed  in  the  fire  of  tribulation, 
either  here  only,  or  here  and  hereafter  both,  or  here 
that  it  may  not  be  hereafter,  —  tJiis  I  do  not  contradict, 
because  possibly  it  is  true.'' '  He  is  not  sure  here  ;  and 
in  another  work  he  shows  the  same  uncertainty,  and 
says  "it  is  a  matter  that  may  be  inquired  into,  and 
either  ascertained  or  left  doubtful,  whether  some  be- 
lievers shall  pass  through  a  kind  of  purgatorial  fire 
after  this  life."^ 

Future  punishment  he  believes  to  be  eternal ;  and 
severely  rebukes  Origen  (whom  he  says  "  the  Church 
has  condemned  for  this  and  other  errors  " )  for  his  wild 
fancy  of  restoring  even  the  devil  and  his  angels  to  the 
abodes  of  the  blessed  !  ^  He  teaches  "  different  degrees 
of  punishment  among  the  lost,  as  of  glory  among  the 
saved."  He  inclines  to  the  opinion  that  the  fire  of 
punishment  is  "  material ;"  ■♦  but  this  is  only  opinion, 
while  the  doctrine  itself  he  holds  to  be  of  the  faith  ; 
and  he  solemnly  declares,  that  "  to  be  lost  out  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  —  to  be  an  exile  from  the  city  of  God, 
—  to  be  alienated  from  the  life   of  God,'' — would    be 

'  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  26.         =  Enchirid.  Ixix.         ^  j^^  qi^^  jj^.j^  ^■^^  i^, 
*  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  2. 


THE  FUTURE  LIFE 


91 


incomparably  greater  punishment    than    any  torments 
one  can  conceive  of.' 

TJie  resiuTection  he  believes  is  to  be  of  the  body  of 
flesh,  yet  far  different  from  the  present  mortal  flesh  ;  ^ 
a  spiritual  body,^  of  exceeding  beauty  and  dignity  ;  ^  — 
yet  having  the  very  same  material  as  now,  only  differ- 
ently arranged.  5 

The  eternal  felicity  in  lh.Q  future  life  of  the  blessed 
he  most  eloquently  describes  ;  —  that  life  "  where  neces- 
sity shall  have  no  place,  but  full,  certain,  secure,  ever- 
lasting felicity,"  where  "there  shall  be  the  enjoyment 
of  a  beauty  which  appeals  to  reason,"  where  "the  body 
shall  be  forthwith  wherever  the  spirit  wills,  and  the 
spirit  shall  will  nothing  which  is  unbecoming  either  to 
the  spirit  or  to  the  body,"  where  "  true  honor"  and  true 
peace  shall  be,  where  there  shall  be  "a  higher  freedom 
than  that  of  the  first  man,  who  had  the  ability  not  to 
sin,"  even  the  highest  freedom  of  will  "  not  able  to  sin  ;  " 
where  "  we  shall  rest  and  see,  see  and  love,  love  and 
praise ; "  where  "  God  Himself,  Who  is  the  Author  of 
virtue,  shall  be  its  reward ;  for  as  there  is  nothing 
greater  or  better  He  has  promised  Himself;"  where  "we 
shall  have  eternal  leisure  to  see  that  He  is  God ;  for 
we  shall  be  full  of  Him,  when  He  shall  be  all  in  all."^ 

In  reference  to  all  these  many  and  varied  teachings 
of  the  great  Latin  Father,  we  have  thought  it  more 
just  to  let  him  speak  for  himself;  and,  though  briefly 

*  EticJiirid.  c.xii.  ^  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  3,  8.  ^  Id.  xxii.  21. 

*  Id.   xxii.    19,    24.         5  Enchirid.  Ixxxix.         ^  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxii.  30. 


92  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

Stating  our  opinion  of  his  doctrine  from  point  to  point, 
to  call  careful  attention  rather  to  what  he  actually 
taught.  And  we  would  hope  that  our  exposition  has 
been  fair  to  him,  whose  teaching  we  would  have  all 
Christian  people,  and  especially  all  the  clergy,  reverently 
study.  To  thus  study  must  be  more  and  more  to  ad- 
mire, and,  within  the  bounds  of  Catholic  truth,  to 
gratefully  accept.  For,  in  spite  of  those  hard  theories 
and  rigid  reasonings  of  his  about  certain  relations  of 
God  to  man  ;  as  Maurice  says,  "  the  root  of  the  matter 
was  in  him,  an  essential  acknowledgment  of  God's 
absolute  good-will,  and  nearness  to  us,'' '  and  he  wrought 
out  these  great  principles  with  wondrous  intellectual 
power,  emotional  fervor,  and  spiritual  devotion. 


What  has  been  the  influence  of  S.  Augustine }  How 
extensive  has  it  been,  —  and  has  it  been  for  good  or  ill  > 
What  is  it  likely  to  be.?  These  are  questions  which 
will  be  variously  answered,  according  to  the  stand- 
point of  knowledge  or  sympathy.  While  he  lived,  that 
holy  humble  life,  wherein  worked  a  strong  will,  must 
have  been  a  mighty  factor  of  influence.  The  charge  of 
hierarchical  pretensions,  which  a  few  modern  writers 
have  unkindly  brought  against  him,  has  no  good  war- 
rant. Nor  did  his  dogmatic  earnestness  in  upholding 
doctrine,   as    Milman    justly  allows,  indicate    so    much 

*  Life  etc.  Vol.  II.  p.  167.  The  reader  may  note  how  widely  different 
is  this  estimate  from  that  of  the  author  of  The  Continuity  of  Christian 
Thought. 


HIS  INFLUENCE  IN  THE  PAST  93 

any  "ambition  of  dictating  to  Christianity  on  these 
abstruse  topics,"  as  "the  desire  of  peace  to  his  own 
anxious  spirit."  '  And  the  will  has  been  well  affirmed 
to  be  no  weak  one,  which  wrought  out  his  doctrines 
into  a  system,  and  an  historical  force.  His  writings 
went  far  and  wide  throughout  Western  and  even  into 
Eastern  Christendom  ;  and,  as  they  spread,  his  opin- 
ions gained  an  increasing  influence.  At  the  close  of 
his  career  of  nearly  forty  years  as  priest  and  Bishop  in 
Hippo,  he  had  successfully  met  the  errors  of  Manichae- 
ism  and  Donatism,  and  had  broken  the  delusive  spell 
of  Pelagianism ;  and  in  his  writings  as  a  whole  had  so 
established  the  claims  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  so 
formulated  Christian  doctrine,  as  to  have  achieved  the 
position  of  leader  of  the  thought  of  the  Christian  world. 
Easily  and  admittedly  the  superior  of  all  the  Fathers  of 
the  West,  in  any  age,  — Ambrose,  Jerome,  Gregory  ;  — 
he  need  not  be  compared  with  his  great  predecessors 
in  the  East,  while  he  was  then  manifestly  far  above  all 
his  contemporaries.^ 

Yet  even  that  greatness  was  not  a  perfect  ideal. 
The  discussions  which  had  sprung  up  all  about  him 
during  the  few  last  years  of  his  life,  the  replies  which 
he  had  been  obliged  to  make  upon  this  or  that  point  of 
doctrine,  to  satisfy  the  questionings  of  those  who  desired 
to  go  all  lengths  with  him  in  his  beliefs,  or  to  meet  the 
bolder  and  bolder  attacks  of  some  open  enemy,  show 

'  History  of  Christianity,  Vol.  III.  p.  177. 

*  S.  Athanasius  can  hardly  be  called  a  contemporary  of  S.  Augustine. 
He  died  in  the  year  373,  when  S.  Augustine  was  not  yet  twenty  years  old. 


94  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

'  the  vitality  which  still  thrived  in  the  error  which  he 
had  been  so  long  opposing,  and  are  also  a  pointed  com- 
ment upon  the  imperfection  of  any  human  system. 
Pelagianism  or  Semi-Pelagianism  was  not  yet  dead : 
it  had  truth  with  its  error.  Augustine  must  reason, 
and  restrict,  and  define ;  he  must  save  his  human 
theories  ;  he  must  carry  his  philosophical  speculations 
up  into  the  mysteries  of  God's  Being.  The  inquiries 
and  the  opposition  had  come  chiefly  from  Southern 
Gaul  and  from  certain  parts  of  Italy ;  and  soon  after 
his  death  they  took  more  and  more  definite  shape  of 
hostility  against  Prcdcstijiarianism,'^  as  fatalistic,  de- 
rogatory to  the  mercy  of  God,  and  destroying  the 
responsibility  of  man.  To  this  period  belongs  the 
supposed  protest  of  Vincent  of  Lerins,  the  "  scinper, 
tibique,  ct  ab  omnibus^  very  likely  meant  to  meet  Au- 
gustine on  his  own  ground.^  The  controversy  which 
had  thus  sprung  up  anew,  and  was  bitterly  carried  on 
for  a  century,  was  at  length  settled  largely  through  the 
influence  of  Caesarius,  Archbishop  of  Aries,  by  a  local 
council  which  he  held  for  his  province,  in  Orange,  in 
A.D.  529.  This  council  (of  fourteen  Bishops)  formally 
adopted  a  series  of  articles  which  Caesarius  had  re- 
ceived from  Rome.  These  articles  are  strong  in  their 
condemnation    of    Pelagianism   and    Semi-Pelagianism, 

'  Especially  any  predestination  to  evil,  which  some  deduced  from  S. 
Augustine's  doctrine. 

^  Vid.  Neander,  C/t.  Hist.  Vol.  II.  p.  696;  and  compare  the  passage  in 
the  De  Util.  Cred.  31,  —  "This  therefore  I  have  believed,  trusting  to  re- 
port strengthened  by  numbers  [ab  omnibus),  agreement  [ubique),  antiq- 
uity" (semper). 


MODIFIED  BY  THE  LATIN  CHURCH  95 

and  draw  most  of  their  authority  directly  from  the 
works  of  S.  Augustine  ;  but  they  do  not  mention  pre- 
destination to  life, — and  thus  they  show  a  "cautious 
and  discriminating  adhesion ; "  '  while  they  go  on  to 
declare  the  capability  of  all  the  baptized,  by  Christ's 
aid  and  cooperation,  to  fulfil  the  conditions  of  salvation, 
and  they  anathematize  all  who  hold  that  any  are  ''pre- 
destinated to  evil  by  divine  power.''  ^  Thus,  as  says 
Canon  Bright,  "this  little  Galilean  Council  earned  the 
respect  and  gratitude  of  ages,  for  having  brought  a 
great  question  to  a  comprehensive  settlement,  and 
preserved  the  Christianity  of  Western  Europe  from  a 
one-sidedness  baneful  to  its  soul-attracting  power."  ^ 

We  are  brought,  then,  to  the  fact  of  a  serioiis  modi- 
fication of  Augnstine' s  doctrine,  as  accepted  by  the 
Latins;  —  a  modification  which  has  ever  since  shaped 
the  authoritative  attitude  of  the  Roman  Church  towards 
his  teaching.  Modified  or  unmodified,  that  doctrine 
reigned  supreme  throughout  the  West  for  a  thousand 
years,  down  to  the  time  of  the  Continental  Reforma- 
tion. And  it  may  be  owned,  that,  under  the  darkness 
and  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the  Middle  Ages,  it 
was  not,  as  a  system,  an  unmixed  good.  With  a  sense 
of  sin  overpowering  and  deepening,  —  something  which 
he  had  taught  them, — men  kept  dwelling  too  much 
upon  one  part  of  the  Augustinian  teaching  about  God 

'  Canon  Eright's  Introduction  etc.  ut  sup.  p.  Ixv. 

^  The  Acts  of  the  Second  Council  of  Orange  are  given  at  the  close  of 
Canon  Bright's  valuable  edition  of  The  Anti-Pelagian  Treatises,  pp.  384- 
392. 

^  Introduction  etc  p.  IxvL 


96  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

and  His  government  of  the  world.  All  classes  of  peo- 
ple, too,  in  blind  submission  to  authority,  were  coming 
too  much  under  the  sway  of  that  one  master-mind. 
"  Augustinum,  quem  contradicere  fas  non  est,''  says 
Paschasius  :  —  his  authority  was  put  next  to  the  Bible,' 
perhaps  equal  or  superior  to  it,  by  many :  it  was  too 
much  influence  for  any  one  system  ;  it  was  making  man 
master  of  conscience  and  of  life. 

Gregory  the  Great  was  the  first  distinguished  disciple 
of  S.  Augustine  ;  and  his  writings  breathe  the  devout 
spirit  of  his  master,  and  take  almost  his  very  thought 
and  language.^  Sometimes,  in  doctrine,  he  goes  beyond 
him  ;  noticeably,  in  the  direction  of  mediaeval  Roman- 
ism, in  reference  to  purgatory.^  But  it  was  in  ScJiolas- 
ticisjii  that  the  influence  of  S.  Augustine  was  more 
extensively  known.  Among  the  schoolmen,  S.  Bernard, 
S.  Anselm,  and  S.  Thomas  Aquinas  are  those  who 
chiefly  maintained  and  developed  his  teaching; — pre- 
eminent among  them  all  is  S.  Thomas.  He  is  univer- 
sally acknowledged  as  the  great  theologian  of  the  middle 
ages  ;  and  his  complex  system,  so  rich  in  thought,  with 
its  doctrines  of  free-will,  and  necessity,  and  divine 
power,  and  predestination,  and  creation,  and  grace,  is 
directly  built  up  upon  the  Augustinian  foundation,  — 
with  added  original  features,  and  modifications  to  some 
extent  of  Augustine's  accredited  severity,  especially  in 

'  Vid.  Poole's  Illiistraiions  of  the  History  of  Mcdiaezhil  Thought,  p.  174. 

*  Cf.  Moral.  .\x.  I ;  and  vid.  what  Abp.  Trench  says  of  "  the  influence 
of  Gregory's  great  teacher."  S.  Augustine  as  an  Interpreter  etc.  ut  sup. 
P-  13- 

^  Vid.  Ilardwick's  Middle  Age,  pp.  62-64,  and  notes. 


PERVERTED  BY  THE  REFORMERS  97 

reference  to  predestination/  All  this  might  be  devel- 
oped with  great  interest  in  a  fuller  consideration  of  the 
subject  than  we  have  aimed  to  give  in  this  monograph. 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  Roman  Church  is  supposed  to  have  lost 
much  of  its  active  interest,  to  say  the  least,  in  the  doc- 
trines of  the  great  Latin  Father,  owing  to  the  way  in 
which  they  were  used  or  abused  by  the  Reformers. 
The  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  in  part,  show 
this.  The  shaping  of  those  decrees  was  largely  the 
work  of  the  Jesuits,  whose  theology  was  a  direct  re- 
action from  Luther's  opinions,  which  were  presumed 
to  be  based  upon  the  teachings  of  S.  Augustine.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  said  that  Luther  may 
have  misiindei'stood  or  perverted  S.  Augitstine,  as  as- 
suredly Jansenius,  in  the  next  century,  exaggerated 
and  perverted  S.  Augustine :  and  that  certainly  the 
Roman  Church  so  considered  it,  and  in  its  condemna- 
tion of  Jansenism  did  not  thereby  necessarily  condemn 
Aiigustinian  doctrine.  In  fact,  the  Roman  Church  to- 
day would  not  venture  to  exclude  that  doctrine  "from 
the  pale  of  tolerated  opinion ; "  ^  much  as  she  might 
like  to  do  so  because  of  some  of  his  teachings,  which 
directly  militate  against  her  own  claims. 

Although  the  unquestioned  dominion  of  S.  Augustine 
was  broken  in  the  convulsions  of  the  sixteenth  century, 

'  For  these  modifications,  vid.  Mozley's  Augustinian  Doctrine  etc. 
p.  285,  et  seq. 

^  Canon  Mozley,  we  think,  could  scarcely  make  good  his  words  on 
p.  226,  n.  of  the  Augustiniaji  Doctrine  etc. 


98  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

it  is  commonly  said  that  his  influence  has  lived  since 
then  in  the  opinions  of  the  great  Reformers,  —  in  those 
of  Luther,  and  still  more  in  those  of  Calvin.  And  this 
is  true  ;  and  yet,  we  should  claim,  not  precisely  in  the 
way  in  which  the  descendants  and  disciples  of  those 
men  would  say.  S.  Augustine  did  influence,  and  influ- 
ence profoundly,  both  Luther  and  Calvin  ;  and  we  thank 
God  for  all  the  good  iuflucnce  which  his  Catholic  doc- 
trine had  upon  them  ;  but,  unfortunately,  it  was,  far 
more,  certain  of  his  exaggerations  of  doctrine  which 
influenced  them,  which  they  then  exaggerated  to  a 
still  greater  degree ;  so  that  the  question  becomes, 
Hozv  far  is  Liithej'anism  or  Calvinism  a  fair  reproduc- 
tion of  the  teachings  of  S.  Augustine  ? 

A  full  answer  to  this  question  cannot  be  given  within 
our  present  limits  :  but  a  few  points  may  be  noted. 
Luther  made  S.  Augustine  his  great  teacher  in  the- 
ology.' And  in  his  writings  he  has  not  only  reproduced 
much  of  the  thought  of  his  teacher,  but  has  handed 
down  to  modern  times  —  that  which  but  for  him  they 
might  not  have  so  fully,  known  —  a  breathing  forth,  if 
I  may  call  it,  of  the  Augustinian  spirit.  Yet  all  along 
we  have  to  distinguish  that  spirit  from  the  spirit  of  his 
own  teachings, — and  often  in  most  important  doc- 
trines. His  doctrine  of  oj'iginal  sin,  e.g.  was  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  Augustine.  He  taught  that  man 
was  so  utterly  ruined  by  the  Fall,  that  the  operation  of 
God's  Spirit  in  him  finds  as  little  response  as  in  a  brute 

*  To  William  of  Occam  he  owed  his  theory  of  Consubstantiation  in  the 
Eucharist. 


COMPARED    WITH  LUTHER  99 

or  a  devil.  Here  are  some  of  his  words  :  —  "  The  intel- 
lectual faculties  are  not  only  corrupted,  but  they  are 
totally  annihilated  by  sin  in  man  exactly  the  same  as  in 
devils ;  so  that  in  them  there  is  nothing  but  a  corrupt 
spirit,  a  perverse  will,  hostile  to  God  in  everything."  ' 
This  is  not,  if  we  apprehend  it,  the  Augustinian  doc- 
trine, which  makes  so  much  of  the  Image  of  God  still 
remaining  in  man.  Again,  such  a  view  of  original  sin 
would  bid  Luther,  as  he  did,  deny  all  freedom  of  the 
ivill.  As  he  teaches,  —  "  In  spiritual  and  divine  things, 
man  is  as  the  pillar  of  salt  into  which  Lot's  wife  was 
turned  ;  yea,  he  is  like  a  stick  or  a  stone,  which  is  life- 
less, etc."^  "Free-will,  after  original  sin,  is  a  mere 
name,"  ^  he  says.  But  S.  Augustine,  as  we  think  we 
have  fully  shown,  whatever  may  be  made  of  his  the- 
oretical distinctions,  did  not  at  all  deny  the  practical 
freedom  of  the  will,  and  the  responsibility  which  flowed 
therefrom.  Luther  made  Justification  only  a  judicial 
act  of  God,  delivering  from  the  punishment  of  sin,  but 
not  from  sin  itself.  All  righteousness  is  external  to 
us  ;  ^  is  such  a  literal  imputation  of  Christ's  righteous- 
ness, as  to  make  His  righteousness  and  obedience  ours  ; 
which  subverts  Christian  morahty.  S.  Augustine, 
teaching  that  they  are  "justified  in  Christ  who  believe 
in  Him,  by  a  secret  communion  and  inspiration  of 
spiritual  grace,  which  makes  every  one  who  cleaves  to 
the    Lord    '  one    spirit '    with    Him,"  5     does    not    go 

'  Ed.  Wittenberg,  i.  99.  ^  In  Genes,  chap.  xix.  '  In  tht  Paradoxes  ; 
Vid.  Hardwick's  Reprmatioti,  p.  29.  "  Solid.  Declar.  iii.  de  Fid.  Justif. 
§  II,  §  48.         5  £)e peccat.  merit,  i.  II. 


lOO  SA  INT  A  UG  US  TINE 

anything  like  as  far  as  Luther  ;  and  appears  to  present 
a  very  different  doctrine.  With  him,  it  is  rather  the 
Power  of  Christ  dwelling  in  us,  His  Life  working 
in  us,  whereby  we  cleave  to  Him,  and  produce  good 
works.'  But  the  main  distinction  appears  in  reference 
to  Luther's  all-controlling  tenet  of  yiistificatioii  by  faith. 
This  was  held  in  such  a  way  as  almost  to  exclude 
repentance,  to  exclude  good  works,  to  make  faith 
amount  to  assurance.  Justification  by  faith  only,  he 
was  never  tired  of  proclaiming.  "He  is  not  justified 
who  does  many  works,  but  he  who  without  any  work 
has  much  faith  in  Christ."  ^  And  what  does  his  theory 
of  faith  become  .-'  A  man  has  faith  "  ivJicn  he  believes 
that  he  has  been  received  by  God  into  grace ; " ' 
faith,  then,  is  assurance ;  when  I  believe  I  am  saved,  I 
am  saved,  by  this  "self-confident  assurance  of  indi- 
vidual interest  in  Christ's  sacrifice,"  which  Mr.  Sadler 
well  describes  as  "  foreclosing  a  man's  probation  the 
moment  he  believes,  or  thinks  he  believes  "!4  And 
the  dreadful  carrying  out  of  this  doctrine  of  faith  only 
into  its  relation  to  sin  cannot  be  disguised  nor  explained 
away:  —  "Be  a  sinner,"  says  Luther,  "and  sin  stoutly  " 
{^^ esto  peccator;  et  pecca  fortito',")  —  "but  the  more 
bravely  trust  and  rejoice  in  Christ,  Who  is  the  con- 
queror of  sin,  death,  and  the  world.  Here  zve  must  sin, 
as   long   as   we   live,"    {" peccandum    est,    qnavidiu   sic 

'  For  some  most  valuable  teaching  upon  this  aspect  of  justification, 
vid.  Sadler's  Justification  of  Life,  pp.  339,  347,  etc. 

*  Paradoxes.  ^  Augsburg  Confession,  Art.  iv.  *  Justification  of 
Life,  pp.  74,  209.  '       .         ^ . 


COMPARED    WITH  LUTHER  lOI 

stmiHS.")  .  .  .  From  Him  sin  shall  not  separate  us, 
though  we  commit  whoredom  or  murder  a  thousand 
thousand  times  in  one  day.  Thinkest  thou  that  the 
p-iice  and  redemption  offered  for  our  sins  by  this  Divine 
Lamb  is  so  small  that  it  cannot  avail  to  cover  your 
sham  sins  ?  Pray  boldly  ;  thou  art  a  most  bold  sinner." 
("  Ora  fortiter;  cs  cnini  fortissiimis  peccatory)  '  Need 
we  say  that  S.  Augustine  has  nothing  like  all  this.? 
Faith  alone,  with  him,  means  alone  as  against  nature  or 
the  law  ;  as  where  he  says  that  "  nothing  but  belief  in 
the  Mediator  saved  the  saints  of  the  Old  Testament ;  "  ^ 
or  as  against  works  done  in  our  own  strength  alone ; 
as  in  that  decisive  passage  where  he  commends  the  one 
of  few  works  and  great  faith,  and  declares  that  "he 
shall  be  delivered  for  this  life,  and  depart  to  be  received 
into  the  company  of  those  who  shall  reign  with 
Christ."  3  And  can  any  passage  be  found,  where  he  is 
so  carried  away  by  ideas  of  faith,  or  grace,  as  to  utter 
the  shocking  sentiments  of  Luther  t  Faith  in  Christ, 
he  tells  us,  will  give  us  true  righteousness,— and  by 
this  power  we  can  gain  victory  over  sin.  By  this  "  love 
of  God''  working  in  us  vices  are  to  be  overcome.  "We 
must  declare  war  upon  them,  and  wage  this  war  keenly, 
lest  zve  be  landed  in  damnable  sinsT  Thus  only  can  we 
come  to  "the  end  of  this  war,"  and  "the  well-ordered 
peace  "  for  which  we  long."* 

'  Given  in  the  late  Dr.  Mill's  Five  Sermons  07i  the  Nature  of  Chris- 
tianity;  notes,  p.  1 31-2. 

*  Con.  diias  literas  etc.  i.  39.  ^  Con.  duas  literas  etc.  iii.  14.  *  De 
Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  15,  16. 


I02  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

As  regards  Calvin,  very  different  observations  need  to 
be  made,  although  in  some  ways  he  and  Luther  vi^ere  alike 
in  their  reproduction  and  perversion  of  S.  Augustine. 
Calvin  had  a  more  just  view  than  Luther  of  original 
sin,  and  admitted  some  degree  of  human  cooperation.' 
Calvin's  view  of  assurance  was  like  Luther's.  "Joined 
to  Christ,  the  believer  has  life  in  Him,  and  knoivs  that 
he  is  savedy  Calvin,  however,  with  his  strong  logical 
mind,  used  the  influence  of  S.  Augustine,  far  more  than 
Luther  ever  did  or  could,  in  forming  a  system.  That 
system  was  built  up  upon  absolute  predestination.  And 
here  he  went  far  beyond  even  the  strictest  Augustinian 
statements  ;  and  propounded  a  theory  which  not  only 
has  to  do  with  both  saved  and  lost,  (and  it  is  an  open 
question  how  far  Augustine  taught  tJie  predestination 
of  the  lost)  but  also  denies  regenerating  grace  to  the 
baptized.  Baptism  is  only  "  obsignatory "  of  grace 
which  one  already  had  if  he  were  a  child  of  grace,  one 
of  the  elect.^  If  not,  he  only  partakes  of  the  material 
element.  This  is  radically  different  from  S.  Augustine's 
teaching,  which  is  that  all  the  worthily  baptized  are 
truly  regenerate,  and  thus  partakers  of  grace  ;  though 
we  cannot  say  who  of  them  are  predestinated,  and  will 
finally  attain  to  perseverance.  Moreover,  Calvin  affirms 
that  "  God  intentionally  produces  within  those  who  are 
not  elect  an  apparent  faith ;  that  He  insinuates  Him- 
self into  the  souls  of  the  reprobate,  in  order  to  render 
them  less  excusable  "  !^     We  have  yet  to  find  a  parallel 

'  I>isiit.   lib.   ii.    c.   3.  *  Hardwick's   Reformation,   pp.    130,    176. 

^  Instit.  1.  iii.  c.  2,  n.  11. 


COMPARED    WITH  CALVIN  103 

to  anything  like  this  in  S.  Augustine.  With  all  his 
rigidity,  tenderness  is  manifest.  God  permits  evil,  in 
justice;'  but  only  that  He  may  bring  out  of  it  greater 
good  ;  ^  and  those  who  commit  the  greatest  evil  are  not 
estranged  from  His  goodness.^  He  cannot  explain 
God's  decrees.  They  are  inscrutable.  But  there  he 
stops  :  he  leaves  them  a  mystery ;  bidding  us  not  ques- 
tion nor  complain  ;  and  again  and  again  taking  up  the 
refrain,  "  O  altitiido  !  " 

Thus  we  have  endeavored  to  suggest  that  while  both 
Luther  and  Calvin  deeply  felt  the  influence  of  S.  Au- 
gustine, and  to  a  degree  handed  on  that  influence  to 
those  who  came  after  them,  they  did  not  always  appre- 
ciate or  follow  it ;  and  so  they  must  not  by  any  means 
always  be  taken  fairly  to  represent  him.  As  Hardwick 
writes,  in  reference  to  the  influence  of  the  Calvinists 
in,  the  Lambeth  Articles,  —  they  so  "  exaggerated,  and 
curtailed,  and  contradicted,"  that  even  with  much 
"similarity  of  language  "  they  wrought  "a  profound  if 
not  a  fundamental  change  "  in  the  teaching  of  Augus- 
tine.4  The  modern  world  should  never  be  suffered  to 
forget  that  zu/iat  is  Lutheran  or  Calvinistic  is  not  neces- 
sarily Aiignstinian.  How  far  S.  Augustine  is  respon- 
sible for  their  mistakes,  is  a  question  too  deep  and 
complex  for  man  to  answer.  He  gave  them  the  oppor- 
tunity, as  we  have  already  admitted.  Moreover,  the 
rejection  of  their  errors  is  not  always  seen  to  have 
the  purest  motive.     In  the  re-action  of  our  day  from 

»  Enchirid.  xcvi.;  De  Trin.  xiii.  16.  ^  Enchirid.  xxvii. ;  De  Civ. 
Dei,  xxii.  i.         ^  De  Trin.  xiii.  16.         "  History  of  the  Articles,  p.  164. 


I04 


SAINT  AUGUSTINE 


the  "mischief"  —  so  called — of  Calvinism,  we  may 
observe,  with  trained  vision,  both  a  recoil  from  a  nar- 
rowing and  base  bondage,  which  God  never  appointed  ; 
and  also  a  desire  for  a  freedom  which  is  lawlessness 
and  license.  In  the  modern  Reformers,  and  in  the 
ancient  Saint  and  Father,  let  us  take  the  Catholic  truth, 
ami  throzv  aivay  the  individual  error. 

A  special  study  might  be  made  of  the  influence  of  S. 
Augustine  upon  our  own  Prayer-Book  and  Articles. 
Much  of  the  thought  and  even  of  the  exact  language 
of  the  Articles,  as  we  have  hinted,  is  his.  The  Arti- 
cles, as  we  now  possess  them,  have  a  history  ;  and  that 
history  makes  known  many  changes  from  severity  to 
moderation  and  cautiousness  of  statement ;  and  in 
effecting  these  changes,  their  teaching  has  become  not 
so  much  that  of  Calvin  as  that  of  Luther,  and  not  so 
much  that  of  Luther  as  that  of  S.  Augustine.'  But 
we  are  more  interested  in  the  teaching  of  the  Ser- 
vices. Directly  or  indirectly,  —  in  their  statements  con- 
cerning God  and  man,  sin  and  grace,  faith  and  good 
works,  the  constitution  and  authority  of  the  Church, 
and  the  blessing  of  the  Sacraments,  —  their  tcachiiig 
is   Augnstinian.      It    is   read    in    the    Ordinal,    in    the 

»  For  the  teaching  and  much  of  the  very  language  of  Articles  IX.,  X., 
XL,  XII.,  XVII.,  XXV.,  XXVI.,  XXVII.,  XXIX.,  the  reader  may  con- 
sult De  nupt.  d  concupis.  i.  2S,  ii  45 ;  De  peccat.  remiss,  ii.  44,  45  ;  De  fid. 
et  oper.  14,  De  Baptismo,  passim;  Tract,  xxvi.  in  S.  John  Ev.  §  18;  in 
addition  to  the  many  passages  already  given  which  have  a  clear  bearing 
upon  the  composition  of  the  Articles.  Bp.  Forbes,  of  Brechin,  calls  the 
Seventeenth  Article  "a  concise  summary  of  S.  Augustine's  teaching" 
upon  predestination. 


INFLUENCE   UPON  THE  PRAYER-BOOK        1 05 

Liturgy,  in  the  Baptismal  Offices,  in  the  Daily  Offices, 
and  in  the  Collects.  Very  naturally  much  of  this  teach- 
ing has  felt  the  moulding  of  the  Continental  Reforma- 
tion ;  but  even  that  portion  did  not  conform  itself  to 
sixteenth  century  models ;  while  much  was  taken 
direct  from  ancient  service-books,  —  as  e.g.  two-thirds 
of  the  Collects  which  come  from  the  Sacramentaries 
of  Gregory  and  Gelasius  and  Leo ;  and  it  is  worthy  of 
note  how  fully,  in  her  reverting  to  primitive  Catholicity, 
the  Anglican  Church  was  satisfied  to  go  back  only  to  S. 
Aiig7istinc.  And  this,  we  would  believe,  was  not  from 
a  blind  subjection  to  him  ;  nor  from  failure  to  discover 
some  purer  or  more  Catholic  doctrine,  of  more  remote 
East,  or  nearer  West  ;  nor  only  was  it  because  S.  Au- 
gustine had  been  the  first  to  formulate  dogmatic  teach- 
ing, and  his  influence  had  permeated  others,  as  a 
Gregory,  or  a  Leo ;  but  because  the  Augustinian 
teaching  was  seen  to  mirror,  so  fully  and  faithfully,  that 
of  tJie  Word  of  God  and  primitive  antiquity. 

Thus  much  concerning  the  return  to  S.  Augustine 
may  fit  us  to  look  forward  a  little,  and  say  in  few 
words,  what  we  think  is  likely  to  be  his  influence  in 
the  future.  His  influence  is  fairly  established  in 
the  present ;  —  insecurely  perhaps,  in  the  outside  world 
of  sect  and  dissent,  because  of  the  many  Lutheran 
and  Calvinistic  modifications  ;  though  even  there  with 
increasing  stability,  from  the  very  law  of  God's  truth 
refining  itself  away  from  error ;  but  surely,  firmly, 
grandly,  in  the  historic  Church  of  Christ.  And  every- 
where this  is  so  evident,  that  the  author  who  so  depre- 


I06  SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

cates  "  the  lingering  hold  of  Augustine  upon  the  modern 
mind"  deems  it  so  "formidable  an  obstacle"  that  it 
will  need   "  an  intellectual  revolution "  '  to   shake   us 
from  this  subjection  and  bring  us  back  to   freedom. 
We  have  sufficiently  shown  why  we  think  such  a  revo- 
lution is  not  likely  soon  to  take  place ;  why  we  deem 
the  certainty  of  the  present  the  best  promise  for  the 
future.     Nor  can  we  consider  the  rejection  of  his  teach- 
ing anything  less  than  perilous  to  the  best  interests  of 
Christianity  in  the  world.     God  raised  up  this  man  for 
a  great  work  in  the  world  ;  and  that  work  is  not  accom- 
plished.     It   has    abiding   elements,   which   belong   to 
humanity.     S.  Augustine  is  as  much  needed  as  ever; 
and  he  will  continue  to  be  needed,  — both  negatively, 
against    Manichaeans,    and   Donatists,    and    Pelagians, 
and    Semi-Pelagians  ;    and    positively,    for    the    great 
teachings  of   grace  in  the  One  Name   and   the    One 
Church.     He   is   not   in    reality  in  contradiction  with 
the  more  primitive  East ;   nor  is  he  alien  to  the  best 
spirit   of   the   modern    world.     He   saves    Christianity 
from  the  dreamy  speculations  of  the  East ;   while  he 
teaches  us  all  better  to  know  ourselves,  and  our  destiny 
in  God.     To  Him  he  guides  us  ;  and  to  Him,  our  God, 
we  would  make  his  teaching  lead  us;  — with  his  own 
words  on  our  lips  and  in  our  hearts,  for  faith  and  obedi- 
ence, for  devotion  and  peace  :  —  "i?^  gnodjubes,  ctjiibe 
gnod  vis."     '' Fecisti  nos  ad  Tc ;   ct  inqidetiim  est  cor 
nostrum^  donee  requiescat  in  Te." 

•  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought,  T^.ii. 


Makers 
ypacuse, N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN.  21, 


Date  Due 


BW318.S73 

^heteachmg  and  influence  of  Saint 


1012  00034  2941 


